UPA Govt. wins trust vote by huge margin, to go ahead with India-US nuclear deal

Smarting from the defeat, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani said it was a mere numerical victory for the government and not a moral victory as the whole nation was against the nuclear deal and the government won the trust vote by "horse trading." "There is something like numerical legitimacy and moral legitimacy. The government scored the numerical victory but lost on moral grounds," Advani said.

The Left parties said it was a "black day" for India's democracy as the government won "because of intense horse trading."

Earlier, Advani held Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responsible for the spiraling inflation rate and economic slowdown in the nation as well as for the current political crisis.

"We are not against nuclear energy. We are not against a very close relationship with America. But we would never like India to become party to an agreement which is unequal," Advani told the Parliament.

"This deal makes us a subservient partner. It makes India a junior partner," he argued, saying the BJP wanted the deal to be renegotiated but not scrapped.

"If the government was so serious about the (nuclear) deal, why is it not mentioned in the Common Minimum Programme or even the Congress manifesto," Advani said.