India's warring political parties said yesterday they planned to launch street protests across the country over an arms bribery scandal that has plunged the coalition government into its worst crisis yet.
The main opposition group, the Congress Party, said the first phase of a "long haul" programme to oust Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's 17-month-old government would be launched at the weekend with public meetings in each district of the country.
"It is a long haul programme. How long it will be, will depend on Mr Vajpayee," said Congress spokesman Jaipal Reddy. "We are not confident of the moral sensitivity of this government."
A secretly shot film by journalists posing as arms dealers showed politicians, military officials and bureaucrats apparently accepting money to influence a fictitious arms deal.
Officials from Mr Vajpayee's office appeared before reporters for the first time since the scandal broke last week, to deny any wrongdoing. They said it was unfortunate that aspersions had been cast on the Prime Minister's office.
"The allegations which arise from this so-called expose are baseless," Mr Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to Mr Vajpayee, told a news conference.
The scandal, which has claimed the heads of the defence minister and the chiefs of two political parties, including that of Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, paralysed parliament yesterday and most of last week.
Lower house speaker Ganti Balayogi suspended the chamber for the day after opposition deputies led by the Congress party called for the government to quit.
"The government is making commissions while soldiers are bleeding," they chanted. The upper house was also suspended for the day after a similar uproar.
A Congress leader, however, said the party would not stand in the way of the government seeking a vote allowing it to continue to spend money after the end of the fiscal year on March 31st.
An opinion poll said 69 percent Indians believed Mr Vajpayee should stay on in office despite the bribery scandal.
India Today news magazine which commissioned the poll, however, said that 81 per cent of those surveyed felt the scandal had a serious impact on the coalition.