‘FRAGILITY’ OF INDIA’S CONGRESS SHOWN IN BUDGET VOTE VICTORY
Kartik Goyal and Bibhudatta Pradhan
Bloomberg, April 28, 2010
India’s Congress party-led government needed the backing of a regional powerbroker to win a key budget vote, underlining how dependent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh remains on smaller parties to govern.
“The victory gives us greater confidence,” Salman Khurshid, corporate affairs minister said after lawmakers cast their votes late yesterday. “The agendas of the coalition remain intact and we will pursue those.”
Hours before the ballot, Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee obtained the backing of Mayawati, leader of a party that draws support from those at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy and has 21 members in the lower house of Parliament. Congress and its allies defeated motions sponsored by the opposition that sought to roll back measures imposed in February’s budget by 88 votes.
A year after Congress achieved its biggest election win in two decades the reliance on minority partners has stalled legislation that would allow Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to open retail outlets and Prudential Plc to sell more insurance. Mayawati in 2007 ordered the closure of Reliance Industries Ltd.’s retail branches in two cities in Uttar Pradesh, where she is chief minister, after protests by owners of small shops.
Kartik Goyal and Bibhudatta Pradhan
Bloomberg, April 28, 2010
India’s Congress party-led government needed the backing of a regional powerbroker to win a key budget vote, underlining how dependent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh remains on smaller parties to govern.
“The victory gives us greater confidence,” Salman Khurshid, corporate affairs minister said after lawmakers cast their votes late yesterday. “The agendas of the coalition remain intact and we will pursue those.”
Hours before the ballot, Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee obtained the backing of Mayawati, leader of a party that draws support from those at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy and has 21 members in the lower house of Parliament. Congress and its allies defeated motions sponsored by the opposition that sought to roll back measures imposed in February’s budget by 88 votes.
A year after Congress achieved its biggest election win in two decades the reliance on minority partners has stalled legislation that would allow Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to open retail outlets and Prudential Plc to sell more insurance. Mayawati in 2007 ordered the closure of Reliance Industries Ltd.’s retail branches in two cities in Uttar Pradesh, where she is chief minister, after protests by owners of small shops.
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