| Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi, July 22: Amidst animated debate over the trust vote, the scene in Parliament today turned theatrical when three Opposition MPs walked into the Well of the House with bags stashed with bundles of cash saying the money had been offered to them by an SP leader to abstain from voting. Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has ordered an enquiry into the issue, but the trust vote will take place as scheduled. The PM will address the House and the voting will follow at 7.15 pm.
The Speaker has also summoned the Delhi Police Commissioner. Meanwhile the Prime Minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee are currently holding an emergency meeting, Sharad Pawar has also joined them.
The three BJP MPs alleged that the Samajwadi Party had offered them Rs 9 crores to abstain during the trust vote. Within minutes all the members in the House converged in the Well trading charges.
It seems the dramatic revelations had the sanction of the BJP leader L K Advani, who consented to the MPs making public the allegations. Advani revealed CDs had been recorded after the BJP MP asked a journalist of a well known channel to record the proceedings.
The BJP MPs who were being fished were Ashok Singh Arghal and Phagan Singh Kulaste from Madhya Pradesh and Mahavir Bhagoda from Rajasthan. They accused an SP leader of initially offering them Rs 1 crore with the promise that the remaining amount would be delivered post vote. Each MP was to be given a total of Rs 3 crore each. It may be noted that Police had reached the house of the MP of Morena, Ashok Aghral just hours before these shocking events unfolded.
The channel which recorded the proceeding has said that it would be handing over the tapes to the Speaker shortly and that it had shown restraint in not airing the tapes for public instead as it would be a breach of parliamentary privilege.
The money was given to them in denominations of Rs1000 in bundles of 100 i.e. a lakh per bundle. However no claim so far has been substantiated.
BJP MPs Press conference
BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, who along with two other party MPs Ashok Singh Arghal and Mahavir Bhagoda, produced bags stashed with cash in the Parliament during the trust vote, appeared before the media and explained how the entire incident happened.
Kulaste told the media that after seeing the whole debate in the Parliament on Tuesday, they decided to reveal everything in the House to keep the democracy alive.
Kulaste said that the three MPs were first called to a late night meeting with Congress leader Ahmad Patel in a hotel. But the meeting couldn't happen and they were told to come to SP leader Amar Singh's house the next morning.
Kulaste said that he, along with Ashok Arghal, went to Amar Singh's house where the SP leader made us talk to Ahmad Patel. According to the BJP MP, Patel asked them to abstain during the trust vote for which they will be paid 3 crore each. The token money they were offered was 1 crore.
However, the three refused to accept the money at Amar Singh's house and instead asked to be paid at 4 Ferozeshah Road.
Kulaste informed that 15 minutes after they left Amar Singh's house, a man came to 4, Ferozeshah Road and gave the 1 crore each. When they asked the man who had sent him with money, the man replied: "Amar Singh".
But controversies are not new to Faggan Singh Kulaste and he has been hit in a TV channel's string operation before.
In December 2005, a news channel had aired a programme titled 'Operation Chakravyuh' which showed parliamentarians discussing kickbacks to release funds from the MPs Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme.
Among the MPs accused of seeking money was Kulaste who was earlier Minister of State for Tribal and Parliamentary Affairs in late 1999. The TV channel said funding of Rs 10 lakh was sought from him and the commission was fixed at 30 per cent.
Eventually, the Parliamentary Privileges Committee gave Kulaste and three other MPs the benefit of doubt and all four were suspended for a week. The committee said improper conduct on their part did not relate to their parliamentary duties and none of the members was shown accepting the money.
Party Reactions
BJP
Rajnath Singh said that after the incident the PM had no right to continue in his post. He said the incident has shocked the BJP as much as the country. Rajnath demanded that the CD should be taken from the TV channel and shown to the leaders of all the parties. He however added that they would still be ready for the trust vote in case the Speaker so decided.
Sushma Swaraj added that since the Prime Minister had challenged to give proof of the huge payouts being made for horse trading, then this was proof enough.
CPM
Brinda Karat said the incident made a mockery of the temple of democracy. She termed the incident shameful and called for the immediate resignation of the Government.
"If we have to save the democracy and the trust vote has to be saved from becoming a mockery, then the Lok Sabha has to take a decision on how to tackle it," added CPM general secretary Prakash Karat.
RJD
Lalu Yadav on his part hit out at Opposition for being frustrated and accused it for playing out a fraud. He demanded to know how so much cash reached the House and why the MPs chose not to go straight to the Speaker's chamber and instead walked into the Well of the House.
He said that this is first time that something like this had happened in the history of Parliament and demanded narco tests be conducted on the MPs. He also called for their arrest in case they were actually a party to the misadventure.
Congress
I'll quit public life: Ahmed Patel
Reacting sharply to the allegations of bribery, Secretary to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi said all the allegations were baseless.
"This incident should be investigated. If there is any proof the Opposition should bring it to the Speaker. If proved, I will quit public life," he said.
He added that his party had an intuition that such a thing will take place as allegations of horse-trading had been making the rounds.
"This is a conspiracy and I demand that proof be brought forth."
Ashwini Kumar described the entire incident as extremely unfortunate. He said there was no doubt that the incident had been planted and even the tapes could be doctored. The bottom line he said was that everything so far was unsubstantiated.
Manish Tiwari, Congress spokesperson, said he would like to condemn the BJP drama in the strongest terms. He said the obnoxious drama had been carried out exactly an hour before the PM was to give his speech. He demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
"This is serious allegation on the Parliament and must be fully investigated," he said.
R K Dhawan came out strongly against the BJP saying that getting notes in the House is no proof, as the money could also belong to BJP itself. He also said that as the entire episode had been enacted within the walls of the Parliament, so would come under the Privilege of House.
Tiwari said that the opposition was scared, as they could not muster the numbers. He suggested they could have chosen to walk out instead of indulging in such tactics.
"This is not good for India or for Indian democracy," he said empathically.
PM should resign: Mayawati
Not wanting to waste any opportunity to attack the Congress, UP Chief Minister Mayawati came out with her take on the scandal; she said that she was not amused as the Congress has misused the CBI against me to save the government. "This is something they do time-and-again, I condemn it," said Mayawati.
Directly attacking the Congress she said, "They have done it (buying MPs) to save their government. Democracy has been shamed with this incident."
She also demanded that the PM should resign on moral grounds. Adding that, otherwise, his name will be blotched forever.
S C Mishra
Reacting to the 'cash for votes' drama witnessed in the Lok Sabha during the trust vote debate on Tuesday, senior Bahujan Samajwadi Party leader Satish Chandra Mishra said that the incident was a murder of democracy.
"The Prime Minister had yesterday asked for proof of horse-trading. The proof is there now. It is also being said that a video CD of the entire incident during which money was paid, has been made," Mishra said. "The PM should resign now," he added.
The BSP leader accused the UPA government of trying to win the trust vote by buying and threatening MPs. He even claimed that 500 crores had been transferred from the Samajwadi Party camp last night.
"I can't understand what is there in this nuclear deal that the UPA government is going to such lengths to make this deal proceed."
Samajwadi Party
Mulayam Singh
It is a plot by the BJP to steer clear of the impending loss during the trust vote in the house. But, they will lose anyhow.
Raising questions over the bag in which the money was brought he said, "I saw the bag, it's very small. Rs one crore won't fit into it. I challenge that. "
He further demanded that BJP MP Argal and the other two MPs should be arrested and their involvement in the scam probed."
On the claims that the whole episode has been recorded and has been shown to the Speaker, he snapped, "If that's so, then it should be shown to the nation."
Interestingly, he claimed ignorance about what happened during the all-party-meet called by the Speaker as he went on with accusing the three MPs involved in the incident.
Amar Singh
Visibly angry with being named as involved in buying BJP MPs, SP general Secretary Amar Singh attacked the BJP and said, "Are these guys political gigolos, are they so cheap. They said we were to meet at Le-Meridian hotel but they have to prove that Amar Singh gave that money; if they have any tape then they have to show it."
Claiming that it was a dirty game by the BJP he said the saffron party had earlier too tried to bribe SP. He said, "Jaswant came to us wanting to make Mulayam the PM. BJP has tried to bribe two times. What is this plot? They themselves are not sure of what they are saying. I have never met them (accusing MPs) in life. I am not such a fool that I will trade with an unknown person."
He snapped claiming that the main target was neither Amar Singh nor Ahmad Patel, but was Sonia Gandhi.
Although shaken, he claimed he was having bouts of vomiting since morning, he tried to attack the case that's being made against him by saying, "If my man gave money, then why did they not call the police. Is it written on the money that it's from Amar Singh? What's the proof… Is there any root to that money? They should have arrested them, and handed them over to the police."
BSP alleges CBI threat
Earlier, the BSP MPs had accused the government of putting the CBI hot on their heels. Making his point to the Speaker in the House BSP MP Brajesh Pathak claimed that while he was stepping out of the Parliament House after it was adjourned till 2:00 pm, an unknown lady approached him and gave a piece of paper.
It was written on the paper that the Bahujan Samaj Party should vote in favour of the UPA government or else its leader Mayawati will be sent to jail where CBI will take good care of her.
On hearing the charges, BSP termed it as a serious matter and demanded the setting up of a Parliamentary Committee to probe the threat. CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said that the House must take cognizance of the matter and probe it immediately.
Guilty will not be spared: Speaker
Post the bribery drama in Parliament, a packed House convened again at 6 pm. The Speaker Somnath Chaterjee described the incidents of alleged horse trading as extremely unfortunate.
"It is a very sad day in history of Indian parliament," he said.
Chatterjee said that he had called a meeting of all leaders including L K Advani, whose party has made the allegations against SP offering its MPs money to abstain in the trust vote. He also summoned the Delhi Poilce Commissioner to Parliament for separate discussion.
The Speaker then assured that all possible steps would be taken by him as the custodian of the House.
"No one will be spared if found guilty," he said firmly, requesting the members to leave the case to him.
He however rejected demands by the Opposition to take the floor and put forth their views on the issue. They thank broke ranks and rose to their feet vociferously demanding the PM's resignation and a right to speak, forcing another adjournment. |
Anupamaa
