Operation Distrust Vote

Enemies outside who wanted the PM to go. Enemies inside who wanted the PM to go.
A Congress-BJP mix-up. Wads of cash, Amar Singh, and a sting operation which was never aired. Here's the inside story of the Trust Vote

HARDNEWS BUREAU DELHI

IN HIS PROVOCATIVE speech that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh never delivered during the trust vote, he hurled some damaging allegations against BJP leader LK Advani. Shooting from his hip, he claimed that Advani, acting on the advice of his astrologers, had tried to overthrow his government in the past. He claimed of three such attempts.
As his speech was written much earlier and directed only at his saffron opponents, he did not mention the machinations going on within his own party to throw him out. He also did not talk about how the bribery scandal was meant to be used by the opposition parties to stall the trust vote and force the dissolution of the House and prove that his government had failed to prove a majority. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee emerged as a saviour of the government when he forced the vote despite reservations expressed by the BJP and the Left.
These strenuous efforts by his detractors notwithstanding, Singh managed to emerge triumphant. Hardnews investigations reveal how ‘Operation Overthrow Manmohan Singh' did not succeed. Besides the money and muscle that the government has at its disposal, the support that the US government provided to the prime minister tilted the balance in his favour. Hardnews learns that the US government knew exactly about the margin of the UPA's victory in Parliament. But before he could succeed by using every trick in the business, there were some anxious moments for him.