NDA against bringing no-confidence motion in Parliament: Sharad Yadav

NDA will not bring a no-confidence motion in Parliament against UPA government to force it to prove its majority following withdrawal of support by Trinamool Congress in view of its 2008 experience, NDA convenor Sharad Yadav said today.

"We have no plans to bring no-confidence motion in Parliament against the UPA," he told reporters here.

Yadav said NDA was opposed to dislodging the UPA government from power by 'hook or crook' on the issue of 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and added that it was for UPA government and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to decide whether they wanted to go for fresh parliamentary polls or complete the remainder of its tenure "on crutches".

"In any case, the next general elections were not very far away," the JD(U) leader said.

Yadav, however, said he would attend TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's political programme at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi tomorrow.

"We had burnt our fingers earlier (on trust vote) and do not want a repeat of the same," he said referring to the UPA-1 government winning a confidence motion in 2008 after the Left Front withdrew support following the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Slamming the UPA government for allowing 51% FDI in multi-brand retail, Yadav said it would jeopardise livelihood of 95% of retail traders in thecountry. The opposition, he said, would like to use people's power to defeat the ruling coalition at the centre in the next general elections."We will ensure that people like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia do not come to power again," he said.

He castigated UPA government's defence of FDI in multi-brand retail and other policy decisions to push economic reforms. "If indeed the reforms have strengthened the Indian economy then how come the industrial production has gone down and the growth target is capped at five% ?" he asked.

He also asked the Centre to explain reasons for growing fiscal and revenue deficits and decline in forex reserves.

The NDA convenor lashed out at the UPA government for "presiding over rampant corruption and loot of national resources" and at the same time seeking to justify economic reforms that 'hit the masses'.

He described as 'unfortunate' Supreme Court's recent ruling that auctions were not the only permissible method for disposal of natural resources across sectors in reference to the Presidential reference on the 2G allocations.

"I beg to differ with the Supreme Court verdict on the method of allocation of natural resoures."

Yadav also demanded strong action by Congress and the UPA government against ministers and MPs whose names surfaced in coal blocks allocation irregurities.

Yadav said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should crack the whip against the tainted ministers and MPs and not wait for the court verdict.

In this context, the NDA convenor said he and BJP leader LK Advani had resigned as MPs after their names cropped up in the hawala scam two decades ago.

Yadav, who has been playing a crucial role in bringing all opposition parties on board in crusade against the FDI in retail, slammed civil right workers for branding all parliamentarians as corrupt on the basis of reports about 162 MPs facing serious criminal charges.

The critics should see that about 400 other MPs have clean track records.

The campaign to malign Parliament, its members and politicians in general should stop at once as all persons in public life were not criminals or corrupts, Yadav said adding political and constitutional institutions must be respected to strengthen parliamentary democracy in the country.

On the political situation in Bihar where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is facing protests during his 'Adhikar Yatra' to solicit support from people on the special category status demand, Yadav said he was driven by a mission to ensure development and prosperity of the state.

Yadav said Bihar has wrongly discriminated against by the Centre for decades and even now it has not been given coal linkage for Barauni and Kanti thermal power expansion projects and refunded Rs 1000 crore that it had spent on repair of roads under central jurisdiction.

The state had also failed to get due compensation post the creation of Jharkhand a decade ago even though the then deputy prime minister L K Advani had promised on the floor of the house in Parliament that the centre will provide all required assistance to Bihar to mitigate its losses.

"Whatever Advani had said in Parliament was the government's commitment that should have been respected by his successors. But Bihar's legitimate demands have been cast aside by the central government," he alleged.

The senior JD(U) leader also sought to make light of the ongoing wave of protests against Kumar and said that the people of Bihar have been known to protest on various public and political issues that should not be given much attention by the media.