PM come clear: Oppn on Cash-for-Vote

Amid ruckus in Parliament’s lower house Lok Sabha over the cash-for-vote scandal, the Opposition asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come clear on the issue on Wednesday.

“There is a cloud of suspicion, please come clear,” said Communist Party of India (CPI) lawmaker Gurudas Dasgupta urging the Prime Minister to not fall back on the numbers (PM had boasted the win in elections after 2008 July controversy on buying lawmakers to save his government).

“I request the PM not to fall back on numbers. It is a lame excuse. Destiny has been timed to them, but history may be cruel. History does not repeat itself,” he said.

He said the PM should come clear and decide his option to make sure that his governments are not to go down as the most tainted in the history.

Later Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (Bharatiya Janata Party) said the cable of WikiLeaks is a narrative of an incident and the diplomat concerned did not have any enmity with the minister concerned in United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to send such a cable.

She said it was never expected that this cable will be in public domain.

“See the truth and admit it and don’t just dismiss it,” she said.

She said the previous panel that probed the allegation of 2008 had asked for further probe.

With the Opposition turning the heat on the Prime Minister in Parliament, Manmohan Singh might respond again to the charges in the House on Wednesday.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved a privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue Tuesday saying the PM “misled” the House on the scandal of July 2008 that exploded again after the WikiLeaks cables were made public.

According to the Opposition, the WikiLeaks cables of a US diplomat claiming he was shown money by a Congress aide to buy MPs, clearly indicates that the government had purchased lawmakers in July 2008 to survive a trust vote after the communists withdrew support to the government over a civil nuclear deal with the US.

Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha were both adjourned over the ruckus on WikiLeaks cables on Tuesday and a demand for discussion on the issue.

BJP and the communists take on the Prime Minister for allegedly ?misleading? the House by asserting that no Congress members were involved in vote-buying.

Defying resignation calls from BJP, Singh had questioned the veracity of the claims based on U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks that accused members of his government of paying off lawmakers ahead of the crucial vote.