No confidence motion: Foxing the opposition, BJP earned a golden opportunity

New Delhi, July 19: The BJP faces a test in Parliament on Friday and the party says it will easily clear the hurdle. The no-confidence motion moved by the opposition will be taken up on Friday in Parliament.

The opposition was in fact taken by surprise when the BJP agreed to face the test in such short span of time. Leader of the opposition, Mallikarjuna Kharge who had sought that the motion be held within ten days was taken aback when Speaker Sumitra Mahajan fixed the date for Friday.

What one needs to bear in mind is that here the result is not important. We all know what the result would be as the BJP led NDA is comfortably perched ahead of the majority mark, Dr. Sandeep Shastri, leading political scientist says.

Dr Shastri says, let us not forget that in the 70 plus year history never has a no-confidence motion been passed. Let us understand the difference here. A confidence motion is the one which is introduced by the government and in history it has been defeated only thrice, when Deve Gowda, V P Singh and Deve Gowda were the Prime Ministers.

A no-confidence motion is the one which is usually introduced by the opposition. In 1979 when Morarji Desai was the Prime Minister, his party split following which a no-confidence motion was introduced. However before the voting took place, he resigned, Dr Shastri adds.

Everyone knows that this government has the majority and it would sail through. Here the result is not important, it is the process, says Dr. Shastri. Both sides would very carefully chose who would represent them in Parliament.

The BJP now realises that it is important for them to use the motion in a bid to project the government. Tomorrow you will have the best in the BJP including the Prime Minister himself speaking on the floor of the house. The same would be telecast live as well.

The BJP also realises that it would have been criticised had it not allowed the discussion.

The BJP in fact caught the opposition off guard, when it pre-poned the motion.

This exercise is also an important one for the opposition too. Not only would it get to present its side, but it would also find out how united the opposition is. The number of votes the opposition manages is important here as we would get to know which way the AIADMK and the TRS would have voted as well, Dr. Shastri also adds.

History of no-confidence motions:

• First one- 1963
• Total- 27, including the one to be held on July 20 2018
• July 1993: Narasimha Rao govt wins confidence vote after Babri demolition
• April 1999: Vajpayee govt loses by one vote
• August 2003: Vajpayee govt wins confidence motion
• July 2008: Manmohan Singh govt wins trust vote after CPM pulls out over nuke deal
• Indira Gandhi faced maximum no-confidence votes (15)