Missed it by that much

Mata Bharat must love Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Singh passed a tight confidence vote in the Lok Sabha, India's parliament, after a raucous two day session, by a 275 to 256 margin, with 10 abstentions. The vote came in the wake of a defection on the Left regarding the implementation of a treaty between India and the U.S. over India's nuclear program. Of course the U.S. Congress has yet to pass legislation to hold up its end of the bargain. It also has to be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. India's communists are against the deal and see closer ties to the U.S. as a bad thing. There was also the spectacle of the BJP party which walked into the Lok Sabha holding wads of rupees in hand and then turned around and traded bribery charges with their opponents. If this is any indication of what lies in wait in the months leading up to India's 2009 general election, we'll see just how much Mata Bharat really loves Singh.