"The lower house was packed to capacity, with MPs summoned from their sick beds and even from prison cells to take part in the vote. . . . Two days of debate on the nuclear accord ended in uproar amid opposition allegations of vote buying.
Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members waved fistfuls of money in the air, alleging that they had been offered bribes to abstain. . . .India's media was awash with reports of alleged defections and desertions among MPs ahead of the vote."
Hindu: BJP MPs cart stacks of cash onto floor of Parliament claiming they'd been bribed"The Lok Sabha was stunned on Tuesday when three members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that they were bribed by an ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to abstain from voting in the confidence motion moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The members tabled in the House wads of currency which was reportedly paid to them as advance. The rest of the cash, they said, was to be paid after the voting."
Outlook: PM Manmohan Singh calls out BJP leader LK Advani (and, uh, his astrologers) after winning the vote
"on each occasion his astrologers have misled him. This pattern, I am sure, will be repeated today. At his ripe old age, I do not expect Shri Advani to change his thinking. But for his sake and India’s sake, I urge him at least to change his astrologers so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come.
As for Shri Advani’s various charges, I do not wish to waste the time of the House in rebutting them. All I can say is that before leveling charges of incompetence on others, Shri Advani should do some introspection. Can our nation forgive a Home Minister who slept when the terrorists were knocking at the doors of our Parliament? Can our nation forgive a person who single handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed? To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he discovered new virtues in Mr. Jinnah. Alas, his own party and his mentors in the RSS disowned him on this issue. Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives? Our friends in the Left Front should ponder over the company they are forced to keep because of miscalculations by their General Secretary."
BBC: Kashmir heats back up with several attacks over the weekend
Dawn: Indo-Pak dialogue thus comes under stress
"NEW DELHI, July 21: Pakistan and India struggled to hide their exasperation with each other at the start of a fifth round of ‘composite dialogue’ between their foreign secretaries here on Monday.
New Delhi warned that the recent attack on its embassy in Kabul had put the talks under stress. Islamabad said given its enormous sacrifices it could not be put on probation in the war on terror.
A source close to the talks between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon described the atmosphere at the Hyderabad House as unexpectedly muddied. Mr Menon is believed to have told Mr Bashir that not only had the dialogue been put under stress but the talks were also at risk following the devastating attack in Kabul on July 7."
NYT: Obama's Iraq/Afghanistan trip so-far so-good
WaPo: Mugabe-Tsangvirai talks to begin in South Africa
"Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed Monday to start urgent negotiations toward forming a new government, a first but very tentative step toward ending the nation's political stalemate.
The deal signed on national television was vague, leaving aside nearly every key question about Zimbabwe's future after almost a decade of ruinous decline. But it included clear language vowing an end to state-sponsored political violence, and set a deadline requiring that the talks conclude within two weeks.
Talks were expected to begin Tuesday in the South African capital of Pretoria"
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