PM denies bribery allegations, confrontation mounts in Par

New Delhi, Mar 18 (PTI) Indian Prime Minister on Friday
rejected allegations of bribing MPs to win a trust vote in
2008 saying neither the government nor the Congress party was
involved in any such "unlawful" act but the Opposition was not
not satisfied and sent signals that confrontation would
escalate.
Parliament was rocked for the second day on the issue
with the Opposition rejecting the Prime Minister's statement
as BJP threatened to move a privilege motion against Singh
while Congress toyed with the idea of paying back in the same
coin.
"An issue was raised that the offence of bribery was
committed in India. Government rejects the allegations
absolutely and firmly," he said in an identical statement to
both the Houses of Parliament.
Referring to the charges in the Wikileaks that bribes
were paid to win the Confidence Motion of UPA-I after Left
withdrew support over Indo-US nuclear deal, he questioned the
authenticity of the diplomatic dispatches quoted by the
whistle blower website.
"No one from the Congress party or government indulged in
any unlawful act," he said.
Singh referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee
probe that went into bribery allegations in 2008 and said the
committee had concluded there was insufficient evidence to
draw any conclusion.
But the Opposition were not not convinced by the Prime
Minister's statement and disrupted proceedings forcing
repeated adjournments.
Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley, who was
disallowed by Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari from seeking
clarifications from the Prime Minister, said Singh had
"misled" the House by his claim that there was no case of
bribery would be the point.
That would be the basis on which his party would table a
privilege notice against him.
"The Committee had concluded by majority that Sanjeev
Saxena was a bribe giver wittingly or unwittingly," he said
and asked as to who was behind Saxena.
Congress hit back saying some of the party MPs would be
moving a privilege notice against Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the
Opposition in Lok Sabha, on the charge of defying Speaker
Meira Kumar.