Indian expatriates hail govt win

Tag : Home Based
Indian expatriates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) haveexpressed happiness over the UPA Government's trust vote victory inParliament back home, describing it as a defining moment in thecountry's history.


According to a Gulf-based newspaper, others expressed hope that thegovernment will now be able to push ahead with its reforms agendawithout worrying about the Left.

Some also said that they wanted the government to come clean on thebribery allegations levelled by the opposition.

The paper quoted K.V. Shamsudheen, director, Barjeel GeojitSecurities LLC, as saying that he hoped Prime Minister ManmohanSingh would break his shackles.

"For the last four-and-half years, his government has been tieddown on account of some his coalition partners. Energy dependenceis one of the main obstacles to progress. When the entire world isturning to atomic energy, India can't afford to isolate itself. Aperson like Manmohan Singh would never sacrifice India'sintegrity," he said.

Businessman Sunil Bhatia said he found it hard to digest the mannerin which some opposition members waved wads of money in the Well ofthe House to substantiate the bribery allegations.

"There is no smoke without fire. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)is not stupid to come to the House with a bagful of cash. Buthaving said that, I am glad that the government can now push aheadwith reforms. The Left parties had been setting the government backeach time they sought to go ahead with the reforms."

Shyam Prasad, manager product and programme development, GeneralMotors, Dubai, said: "The manner in which some lawmakers turned upwith wads of cash in parliament was nothing short of a mockery ofdemocracy. Things could have been handled and dealt with morediplomatically."

Abbas Ali Mirza, president of the Indian Business and ProfessionalCouncil (IBPC), Dubai, said the decisive vote of confidence couldwell turn out to be a milestone in the country's march tosuperpower status.

"I believe, the UPA government's victory was a step in the rightdirection for the country - it will certainly send the rightsignals to the international community," he said.

Pradeep Parmar, managing director of distribution firm Enthusiasm,said it was only right that the will of the people had prevailed.

"If you elect the wrong people or those with low morale, they won'tbe in tune with the office they hold," he said.

K. Kumar, convenor ICWC, said: "We anticipate more reforms to comethrough which had been on hold because of the composition of thecoalition. As far as the allegations of bribery are concerned, theyshould be investigated. In the current scenario, nothing can beruled out but there has to be a thorough investigation and anyculprits should be penalised," he said.