NEW DELHI - The WikiLeaks India cables have revealed some more shocking information. The latest one is on the purchase of votes by the Congress before the crucial vote of confidence in Lok Sabha in theyear 2008.
Five days before the UPA government faced a crucial vote of confidence on the Indo-U.S.nuclear deal in 2008, Nachiketa Kapur, a political aide to Congress leader Satish Sharma showeda U.S. Embassy employee “two chests containing cash” he said was part of a bigger fund of Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 60 crore that the party had assembled to purchase the support of MPs. He also claimed the four MPs belonging to Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal had already been paid Rs. 10 crore each to ensure they voted the right way on the floor of the Lok Sabha.Indian Top Stories
In a cable, dated July 17, 2008, sent to the State Department (162458: secret), accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, U.S. Charge d'Affaires Steven White wrote about a visit the Embassy's Political Counselor paid to Satish Sharma, who is described as “a Congress Party MP in the Rajya Sabha and a close associate of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi considered to be a very close family friend of Sonia Gandhi.”
Mr. Steven White reveals, “Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore (about $2.5 million) for each of their four MPs to support the government. Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government.”
Later Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had managed to get 275 votes in favour with 256 againstand 10 abstentions. Just before the confidence vote, Members of Parliament belonging to BJP had produced cash on the floor of the House and alleged that this was the money the government had used to buy the support of MPs. Investigations followed by were left high and dry. Now, the revelations of secret U.S. Embassy cable is likely to reignite Opposition allegations that bribes were paid on a massive scale to ensure the UPA won the 2008 vote of confidence.
However, Ajit Singh who didn't vote for the UPA during the trust vote has slammed the expose.
Source : http://www.newzfirst.com/web/guest
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