The BJP members rushed in the well of the House protesting against the alleged attempt of horse-trading, they waved wads of cash, which they were offered as bribe.

Lok Sabha was adjourned till 5 pm after BJP members created din in the House. The members dumped bundles of cash in the well of the House.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has said that he will look into BJP allegation.

”House will resume at 5 pm,” said Deputy Speaker.

Speaking to reporters, senior BJP leader LK Advani said that three BJP members were approached with Rs 1 crore.

”Our MPs asked me if they can display the bribe in the House. Rs 1 crore was paid as advance and Rs 9 crore was the total deal,” said LK Advani, Leader of the Opposition.

“They have the right balance in these conditions. They are always a big threat at home. Muttiah Muralitharan is a big impact and Chaminda Vaas is a clever bowler in these conditions,” Dravid said on Monday.

“They have a good batting line-up that adapts well in these conditions. They can bat for long periods. But we have come here with a good team as well. If we play to our potential, I think it will be a good Test series.”

Dravid, one of the seven batsmen to have completed 10,000 Test runs, was part of the Indian side that lost a three-match series 2-1 on their last Test tour of Sri Lanka in 2001.

Sri Lanka have also beaten South Africa, England, the West Indies and Bangladesh at home in the past four years, with off-spinner Muralitharan and left-arm seamer Vaas playing major roles.

They have lost just one of their 16 home Tests since August 2004, the lone defeat coming against Pakistan at Kandy two years ago.

Muralitharan is the world’s leading wicket-taker with 735 scalps in 120 Tests, while Vaas has grabbed 343 wickets in 104 matches.

The hosts also have a surprise weapon in Ajantha Mendis, who is likely to make his Test debut here after his match-winning performance in the Asia Cup final against India in Karachi early this month.

Mendis grabbed six wickets for 13 runs with clever variations to power his team to a 100-run victory.

But Dravid said his side was not concentrating on Mendis alone.

“Sure, he is going to be one of their four or five bowlers, but you cannot just focus on Mendis. They have got a couple of other guys (Muralitharan and Vaas) who have got 1000 wickets between them,” he said.

“It will be a big mistake to focus just on Mendis. We will just play it as we see it. We have come against a lot of bowlers in our times and we have succeeded against them.”

Dravid was one of the five veterans who was not part of the Asia Cup one-day side, others being Test skipper Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Sourav Ganguly.

Tendulkar is just 172 short of breaking Brian Lara’s world mark of 11,953 Test runs, but Dravid said the team was focused more on winning the series than the record.

“There has been no talk in the dressing room of either the record or anything like that.

“We are focused on winning the series and so is Sachin,” said Dravid, who quit captaincy last year.

“I hope he (Tendulkar) achieves the landmark here. We are hoping it is in the first innings of the first Test on the first day itself, so we can have a big celebration.

“It would really help the team and him as well. It’s obviously a great achievement for him and the team when he eventually gets there.”

Dravid said he was looking forward to playing his first Test after seven years in Sri Lanka.

“We have not played (a Test) here since 2001. It is nice to be back. I am looking forward to playing a Test series in Sri Lanka. The wicket here is very good,” said Dravid.

“I enjoy batting here. There is something in it for the bowlers and stroke-players. If you get set you can play your shots and there is good value for your strokes. I have done quite well here in Tests and one-dayers.”

Decoding Mendis

New Delhi: Unlocking the Mendis code will not be difficult for the Indian batsmen if they concentrate on his wrist movement, feels GR Viswanath.

Having excelled against Australian John Gleeson, another mystery spinner who flummoxed batsmen with his odd grip in his 1969-70 debut series where he came up with a century in his maiden appearance, Viswanath said taking on Mendis won’t be difficult once the Indian batsmen carefully observe his wrist movement.

“You’ve got to pick him (Mendis) up at the time of delivery. Our batsmen need to observe Mendis’s wrist and finger movements at the time of delivery…Then he’ll become easier to negotiate,” the 59-year-old said on the sidelines of a Delhi District Cricket Association function on Sunday night.

The ruling combine and the opposition are almost equally poised in the House with an effective strength of 541 in the trust vote to be taken on Tuesday evening and the UPA managers are banking on nearly ten abstentions, all of them from NDA camp, and by Trinamool Congress leader Mamta Banerjee.

But the BJP dismissed all this as mischievous propaganda. The BJP as well as others against the confidence motion claimed that the opposition had a fair chance in the parliamentary battle.

Treasury bench managers claimed that they will win comfortably when the confidence motion moved by the prime minister is taken up for voting on Tuesaday evening. The margin of victory being bandied about by the ruling side is about six to seven votes above the required magic mark of 271.

Moving his one-line motion at the beginning of the two-day debate on the motion, a combative prime minister said the exercise of confidence was “wholly avoidable” and has come at a time when the government’s attention has been on the economy, particularly on control of inflation.

The ruling combine fielded External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government’s pointsman on the Indo-US nuclear deal who shared a good rapport with the Left parties, put up a spirited defence of the government.

Keep your hand on your heart and say is this an issue on which you are bringing down the government Mukherjee said attacking the Communists for their decision to vote along with the BJP to defeat it.

Dont jump off the running train. Wait for the next station which the train is approaching to get off he told the left parties to avoid voting with the BJP.

The body language of the UPA in a packed Lok Sabha appeared confident and combative as Mukherjee claimed that the Congress-led alliance has the support of 276.

The ruling side hopes that some five abstentions–two each from BJP and JD-U and one from Shiv Sena– and some more from the rival camp not in a position to travel because of their ill-health would come to its aid in the vote that is exepcted to be a cliff-hanger.

However BJP Spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra described these claims as mischievous propaganda and said the NDA was intact.

He also dismissed in a similar vein reports that the BJP was lackadaisical in toppling the government on fears that BSP leader Mayawati may corner all the credit if the government fell.

NDA sources however onceded losses in the form of defection by BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh and the possible absence of Shiv Sena MP Tukaram Renge Patil who is said to be miffed with his party leadership. One more MP from Karnataka who is in ICU is a doubtful starter.

Commending the motion, the 75-year-old Prime Minister said “I assure the House and the country that every single decision, every policy initiative we have taken was in the fullest confidence that we are doing so in in the best interests of our people and our country.”

On the Indo-US nuclear deal, which has forced the confidence vote, he said he had repeatedly assured all political parties, including the Left, that if the government had been allowed to complete negotiations with the IAEA and NSG, he would have himself come to Parliament and sought its guidance before operationalising the deal.

He was surprised that the Left parties withdrew support when he was in Japan and so as soon as he returned he met the President and offered to submit himself to face Parliament at the earliest opportunity.

The two-day special session for the debate, which sometimes turned acrimonious, began in the shadow of mounting pressure from the CPI-M which directed Somnath Chatterjee to step down as Lok Sabha Speaker before the trust vote but he was defiant and presided over the House.

Leader of the Opposition, L K Advani, who was unsparing in his criticism of the government, said “if people vote NDA back to power, we will renegotiate the nuclear deal to make it equal and ensure that there are no constraints on our strategic autonomy.”

He said the deal has become an agreement between two individuals and was making India “subservient” and a junior partner.

A combative Mukherjee rejected the Left’s charge of “betrayal” saying the government decided to give the go-ahead to the IAEA to circulate the frozen text of the safeguards agreement among its Board of Directors after CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat announced that they were withdrawing support.

Responding to concerns over the applicability of the US Hyde Act on the 123 Agreement, he said “if anywhere it imposes conditionalities, that will be the breaking point”.

“We will never compromise India’s foreign policy,” he added.

Government side fielded four other ministers–T R Baalu, Praful Patel and Anand Sharma–who strongly defended the deal and the government. Ram Gopal Yadav, whose Samajwadi Party recently switched to the ruling camp, cautioned the Left parties about going with the BJP in toppling the government.

From the Opposition, the attack also came from Md Saleem of CPI(M), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP), Anant Geete (Shiv Sena) and Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD).

Salim accused the government of “outsourcing” foreign policy to the US and bluntly told the Congress that its coalition has lost trustworthiness due to its “deals”.

In a sarcastic vein, he said the government becomes fast when it comes to the nuclear deal and likened it to cricketers taking to performance-enhancing drugs.

He said the Left parties had not supported the government to go ahead with the nuclear deal and the strategic alliance with the US.

“I challenge anybody to prove the charge that we have indulged in horsetrading,” Singh said.

The prime minister also said that his government was concerned about the rising prices.

The Prime Minister again expressed confidence that UPA will win the

“There cannot be any change in our stand. All our three MPs are going to vote against the UPA government,” JD(S) Secretary General Danish Ali said when asked to comment on the rumours in the political circles.

He alleged that such rumours have been floated by the ruling camp out of “sheer nervousness” ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

“It is one more attempt by the political rivals of JD(S) to tarnish the image of the party and its leader H D Deve Gowda,” he said.

The veteran parliamentarian, who has made it clear that he does not want the Speaker’s office to be dragged into political controversy, chaired a meeting of floor leaders of various parties shortly before Lok Sabha met to consider Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s confidence motion.

Ending speculation that he may step down before the House debates the motion, the 79-year-old Marxist leader occupied the Speaker’s Chair at 11 am, telling members that he had no subject of his own except to run the House.

The CPM made no secret of its unhappiness and Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said that a “decision” in the matter would be taken at an “appropriate time”.

Yechury pointed out that the matter had been discussed in the Central Committee which had authorised the Politburo to take an “appropriate decision” at the “appropriate time.”

Indicating that no action will be taken during the two-day Lok Sabha session, Yechury said, “We will not involve the Speaker’s office while Parliament is in session.”