United Oppn mounts attack on PM in LS on cash-for-votes scam

New Delhi, Mar 23 (PTI) A united opposition Wednesday
mounted attack on Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh over
the cash-for- votes scam wondering as to how he could wash his
hands of the matter as he had headed the government in 2008
and was the "biggest beneficiary" of the trust vote.
Leader of the Opposition in the Lower House of
Parliament, Lok sabha, Sushma Swaraj made a stinging attack on
Singh in the Lok Sabha telling him that as head of the
government he should take responsibility instead of making
others scapegoat for the omissions and commissions of his
regime.
"It is the habit of the Prime Minister to blame
others. If it is price rise then (Agriculture Minister) Sharad
Pawar is responsible, if it is 2G then (former Telecom
Minister) A Raja is responsible and if it is Commonwealth
Games then (Suresh) Kalmadi is to blame," she said.
"'I don't know anything, I am not aware of anything,
there are coalition compulsions and I am not that much guilty
as I am made out to be' ...the people are fed up with such
excuses. They are asking why you are the Prime Minister," she
said participating in a discussion.
"The issue involves your leadership," she said,
quoting an Urdu couplet which means one should not make any
excuse but tell how the caravan got looted. The Prime Minister
was present in the House and was listening intently to the
debate.
Earlier, initiating the discussion on the Prime
Minister's statement on the Wikileak's expose in the
cash-for-votes scam, first accessed by 'The Hindu' daily, CPI
leader Gurudas Dasgupta accused Singh of resorting to
"parliamentary piracy" to win the vote of confidence in 2008
and demanded that he come clean.
He said the report of a Parliamentary panel on the
scam had clearly recommended "investigation by an appropriate
agency" into the alleged attempts to purchase votes to win the
trust vote on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.
"It's a case of parliamentary piracy because some
members were hijacked. The suspicion is that organised group
of political gangsters were at work," he said.
Dasgupta's remarks terming the alleged scam as an act
of "parliamentary piracy" and the handiwork of "organised
groups of political gangsters" drew an angry retort from the
ruling benches.

As the CPI leader demanded a probe in to largescale
absenteeism in the opposition benches during the trust vote,
ruling members, including Congress member Raj Babbar, were on
their feet protesting the reference.
Taking objection to Prime Minister's remarks that the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had returned to power even
after the alleged scam, Dasgupta said "electoral verdict
cannot condone criminality if it has been perpetrated."
He said the Congress had polled only 25 per cent votes
in the General Elections but did not want to draw any
conclusion from it. "I make no conclusion. I donot say it is a
minority government," he said.
However, this contention by the Prime Minister gives
credence to the 'might is right' theory.
"Might is right is a dangerous proposition that does
not fit-in in a democracy," he said.
Last week, the Prime Minister had hit out at the
opposition for giving "dignity" to an "unverified
communication", and pointed out that the Congress had won the
2009 Lok Sabha elections and that the tally of the Opposition
parties had reduced considerably.
Despatches by American diplomats, leaked by WikiLeaks
and published in a national daily, purportedly claim that
payoffs had been made to MPs to ensure a majority for the
Congress-led government in the confidence vote following
differences over the India-US nuclear deal in 2008.
As per the cables, a US diplomat was told Rs 50-60
crore was kept aside by the Congress party to get some
opposition members of the Lok Sabha on board before the trust
vote in July 2008 during the first tenure of the UPA
government.
"I concede that the PM was precise in his statement
and the statement was cogent. PM was very prompt in throwing
the ball in the court of the Opposition, his tone was very
firm, normally he is not. He was firm in rejecting the
complaints on cash-for-votes during the last no confidence
motion," said Dasgupta.
The CPI leader said linguistic fervour was used to
conceal the facts. "Strong is the language of the weak and
persuasive is the language of the strong," he said.

Disputing Singh's contention that neither any Congress
member nor anyone from the government indulged in any illegal
act, Swaraj insisted that bribe was paid and asked who its
"beneficiary" was, "whose government was saved" and "who had
to remain the Prime Minister".
Taking a dig at Singh, she questioned why he says he
is unaware whenever an issue is raised.
Amid repeated disruptions by Congress members, she
said after Parliament Inquiry Committee had recommended
further probe into the scam, Delhi Police Crime Branch had
registered a case in January 2009 and the Central Forensics
Laboratory had verified the authenticity of tapes of the sting
operation.
Noting that Singh had not mentioned this in his
statement, Swaraj said, "Nobody tells you anything? This is
why I have given notice for Breach of Privilege Motion."
Maintaining that she did not believe that Singh did
not know who was involved, she said even if he was unaware,
"he was equally guilty by the logic that a beneficiary of a
crime is as responsible as the one who commits it."
Pointing out that Singh was the "mukhiya (head)" of
the government, she said he should end the "habit of blaming
others" as such an attitude will work no longer.
On the Prime Minister's contention that the Congress
victory in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections had proved that there
was nothing wrong with the 2008 Confidence Motion, Swaraj said
an electoral victory cannot condone a wrongdoing.
Dubbing Singh's argument as "illogical", she said if
it was accepted, it would amount to adding a "new chapter" in
"criminality in politics".
Asking the Prime Minister as to from where he got
"this argument", the BJP leader sought to make her point by
referring to the 2002 Gujarat riots over which Chief Minister
Narendra Modi is facing attack.
"After the Gujarat riots, Modi won elections twice but
still Congress had not let him off... The (Gujarat) state
police, CBI and SIT (Special Investigation Team) have given
clean chit to Modi, but this aspect about mandate does not
apply there, according to you (Congress)," Swaraj said.
She said it is irrespective of the fact that the BJP
never sought to take that plea.
Swaraj also referred to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and
said that despite the unprecedented mandate of over 400 seats
obtained by Congress in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections,
the taint of communal violence against it is yet to go away.
Insisting that India's democracy had been "shamed" by
the 'cash-for-votes' scam, she said an electoral victory or
loss would not wash it off.
Supporting Dasgupta, she asked why investigation by an
appropriate agency like CBI was not conducted even after the
Parliament's Inquiry Committee recommended such a probe.
She said a CBI probe should be ordered but not before
naming in the FIR the people who figure in the WikiLeaks.

Swaraj said the investigation by the Delhi Police was
moving at a snail's place and there has been not much progress
in the three years after the case was registered.
She referred to the Inquiry Committee's observation
that Sanjeev Saxena was a "bribe giver wittingly or
unwittingly" and said his role needed to be investigated
further.
On the Prime Minister's contention that correspondence
between the US Embassy here and its government in Washington
was "speculative, unverified and unverifiable", the BJP leader
said it amounted to "turning a blind eye to the truth".
She asked why an Embassy official would name any
minister or anybody else unnecessarily. "Did he have any
enmity with the minister?"
Believing in the authenticity of the correspondence,
the Leader of the Opposition referred to a TV interview of
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in which he said that Singh
was "misleading" by questioning the authenticity. This led to
an uproar by Congress members who questioned the status of
Assange.
Countering the Opposition contention, Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Prime Minister's
statement was based on facts and that an "environment of
crisis" was being created on the basis WikiLeaks documents
which should be given no importance.
Contending that BJP was misinterpreting facts and
exaggerating things, he asked whether the Opposition party had
verified the contents of the WikiLeaks documents or whether it
could do so.
"These are all wild allegations," Bansal said,
questioning how the Prime Minister can be made an accused on
the basis of whatever the US Charge d'Affaires has written.
"You consider it the truth? ... Whenever you have
attacked the Prime Minister, he has emerged stronger because
he has that kind of personality," he told the BJP.
The Congress leader defended the Prime Minister's
reference to the victory in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, saying there
was nothing wrong in mentioning the electoral win.
BJP was raising the issue as it was not able to digest
the UPA's electoral victory in 2004 and 2009, he said.
Taking a dig at the main Opposition party, Bansal said
the problem in BJP was of "JS ping pong (inferring turf war
between Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj).
He referred to Parliament's Inquiry Committee which
had recommended probe against Sudheendra Kulkarni, former
close aide of BJP leader L K Advani in the 'cash-for-vote'
scam.
To this, BJP members, including Yashwant Sinha, said
they wanted it and asked why the case against him was not
pursued for the last three years.
Bansal targeted BJP for demanding CBI probe into it,
saying it demanded investigation by the agency whenever it
suited and otherwise it reposes no faith in it.
He praised Samajwadi Party for extending support during
the 2008 Confidence Motion, saying Mulayam Singh Yadav had
done so as he did not want instability in the country unlike
the BJP by bringing down the government.