Cash for votes? Cong demands probe, Oppn say ‘shameful day’

Kumar said the Opposition which has sensed defeat is staging the whole drama and in the process it has violated the decorum of the House and added that an inquiry should be conducted into the issue.

Union Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal too demanded an investigation into the allegations by the BJP members.

“The matter (of cash being brought into the House)

needs to be investigated into,” he said, soon after Lok Sabha was adjournment till 6 pm following the BJP MPs placing bundles of currency notes in the well of the House and alleging they were bribed.

“It is very sad for all persons sitting in the House (that bribery charges were being made),” Sibal said.

Sibal said if the allegations from the BJP were true, three facts came out of the episode. “Wads of notes were brought to the well of the House, the MP claims he received money from somebody as bribe, and cash was brought in without Speaker’s approval.”

These three are facts,” he said, calling for a probe into the allegations. Congress also alleged that it was a BJP ploy to disrupt the Lok Sabha by bringing in the charges of bribery against the Samajwadi Party.

“BJP wanted to disrupt the proceedings. So they came up cwith these allegations that its MPs were bribed by a SP leader,” senior Congress leader Jayanti Natarajan said.

SHAMEFUL DAY

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said display of wads of notes totalling one crore rupees in the well of Lok Sabha allegedly offered to BJP MPs as bribe money was a ‘shameful day’ in the country’s democracy.

Karat said that there were reports of his allies being offered money to either abstain or support the government in the trust vote.

“The members belonging to the opposition in the Lok Sabha have been approached with money and inducements. They have spared the members of Left parties because they know they can’t buy our MPs,” said Karat.

“We have the time, date, records,” Karat said backing his claim of bribe money allegedly being offered to MPs to bail out the UPA government.

ADVANI DEMANDS PROBE

Senior BJP leader L K Advani demanded a detailed investigation by the Lok Sabha Speaker into allegations that three of his MPs were offered Rs nine crore by Samajwadi Party for abstaining during the trust vote.

“On the basis of whatever happened (on the floor of the House), we can demand from the Speaker, that as the issue is so serious, that a detailed investigation should be done,” Advani said.

Advani’s demand came shortly after unprecedented scenes were witnessed in the Lok Sabha when a BJP MP waved in the well of the House wads of currency notes offered as a bribe.

Advani claimed that the three BJP MPs — Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bagora — were offered Rs three crore each and were handed over Rs one crore each in advance.

Terming the incident as a breach of privilege, the Leader of Opposition said the MPs were given the money for abstaining from the voting during the trust vote.

“In my own whole life I have not come across such a sad event. We had received information yesterday and today. This is shameful,” he said.

Advani noted that he had hinted about horse-trading in his speech on Monday while some Left members openely spoke about such things in the House.

He said three BJP MPs came to him on Monday saying that they were offered Rs three crore each for ‘only abstaining’ during the voting. “Rs one crore was given in advance and the rest was to be given later,” he claimed.

“They asked me whether they can produce the money in House. I said it is normally not allowed. But the kind of scandal it is I thought the House wiull at least adjourned,” he said.

“But as JMM scandal, it is not a small thing and it is related to the Parliament. It is a case of corruption. Whoever had given, whoever tells them to abstain, this is the breach of privilege,” Advani said. He said the incident should be taken ‘very seriously’.

Advani also said he would not name anyone and ‘I would let them name themselves’.