Amar Singh. He is alleged to have conspired and manouevred to “buy the votes” of opposition members to save the UPA government.
THE renewed investigation into the 2008 cash-for-votes scam was a direct consequence of the Supreme Court's castigation, in early August, of the Delhi Police for their “half-hearted and hopeless” probe into the issue and a stern order to make amends at the earliest. The developments that followed included the arrest of former Samajwadi Party (S.P.) general secretary Amar Singh, who is alleged to have conspired and manoeuvred to “buy the votes” of opposition Members of Parliament to help the United Progressive Alliance government win the vote of confidence, and of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahabir Singh Bhagora, who are also accused in the same case. They, along with sitting BJP MP Ashok Argal, had displayed in Parliament the “cash for votes” they had received while the discussion on the vote of confidence was taking place. The police are seeking the arrest of Argal.
But the big question is whether the investigation will expose the real players behind the scam. The BJP, which is the principal opposition party, as well as the Left parties led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), have demanded a deeper probe, but there are no concrete signs that the investigating agencies will oblige them.
The statement from the CPI(M) went as follows: “The case of the three MPs who produced cash on the floor of the House is only one small part of the overall operation undertaken by the ruling party and its allies to bribe and suborn MPs. Obviously, Amar Singh was not acting alone.”
BJP MPS MAHAVIR Singh Bhagora, Ashok Argal and Faggan Singh Kulaste, who alleged that money was offered to them to vote in favour of the UPA government in 2008.
The BJP pointed out that the real beneficiary of the operation was the first UPA government led by Manmohan Singh. It added that the investigation by the Delhi Police in the past two and a half years had systematically sought to skirt this important point.
The Delhi Police have not actively probed the allegations against any leader of the Congress or any of its allies in the UPA in this case. Suhail Hindustani, one of the accused, had specifically named Amar Singh and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, as people who had entrusted him with the task of influencing Lok Sabha members to vote in favour of the UPA government. In an affidavit submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker in 2008 as well as in his deposition before the investigating officers, Hindustani stated that Patel had spoken to him over the phone about organising MPs for the vote and that many aides of the Congress leader had worked with him in meeting MPs from the opposition and trying to persuade them to back the government. Hindustani's deposition was one of the factors that led to the arrest of Amar Singh, but there are no signs yet of any concrete move against Patel.
On the last day of the monsoon session of Parliament, senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani pointed to the absence of investigation against the Congress leader and questioned the arrest of the former BJP MPs. According to him, the BJP MPs had merely taken part in a sting operation to expose the government's machinations to win the vote of confidence. Advani argued that the MPs had acted in the national interest by taking part in the sting operation. “Whatever was done was done as per constitutional norms. If anything was wrong, I would have stopped them. If they are guilty, so am I because I was Leader of the Opposition then,” Advani said, daring the government to arrest him. The former Deputy Prime Minister also announced a nationwide campaign against corruption in high places.
SENIOR BJP LEADER L.K. Advani. He is planning a nationwide campaign against scams and corruption in general.
Indications from the BJP leadership are that the cash-for-votes scam, with particular emphasis on the lack of investigation against Congress and UPA leaders as well as the “wrongful action” against BJP MPs, would be an important plank of the campaign. “We are planning to highlight this dimension along with the corruption exposed by the latest reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General [CAG] in sectors such as civil aviation and oil, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Navy,” BJP leader Prakash Javadekar told Frontline.
The CAG report on civil aviation criticised several aspects of the functioning of the Ministry concerned, including the placement of an order for 111 aircraft for Air India and Indian Airlines and the merger of the two national carriers. There was pointed criticism of the political leadership in the report. It stated categorically that the decisions relating to the purchase and merger originated “from the top” and not from the airlines management. The report also held the government responsible for not allowing the national carrier a level playing field. The most profitable routes of the national carrier were given away to other airlines, it pointed out.
Another CAG report pulled up the Petroleum Ministry for showing undue favour to Reliance Industries. It faulted the Ministry and the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) for allowing Reliance to retain “the entire 7,645 km offshore block” in the Bay of Bengal in contravention of the production-sharing contract, according to which Reliance should have relinquished 25 per cent of the area.
In a third report, the CAG pulled up the Indian Air Force and the Navy for procedural irregularities, acquisition of aircraft without weapons, purchase of ineffective missiles, and poor supervision in the installation of vital radars and aerostats, resulting in losses for the exchequer.
AN ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTEST by BJP activists in New Delhi on September 3.
The proposed campaign by the BJP and others such as the Left parties may generate some political heat, but they are not likely to force the investigation into the cash-for-votes scam to broaden its parameters.
Talking to Frontline, Prakash Singh, who was Director General of Police in Assam and Uttar Pradesh as well as the Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF), said that the current trajectory of the investigation did not generate any hope on that front. “It is evident that the investigation has been conducted in a selective manner. Even while bringing in some names under the purview of the investigation on account of the castigation of the courts or on account of pressure of public opinion, care has been taken not to touch those who are close to the ruling establishment,” he pointed out.
Another former police officer observed that when the Kishore Chandra Deo-led parliamentary committee concluded its investigation into the cash-for-votes scam, it recommended further investigation into the activities of Amar Singh's aide Sanjeev Saxena, Suhail Hindustani and BJP leader Sudheendhra Kulkarni by an appropriate agency.
CONGRESS LEADER AHMED Patel. The absence of investigations into his alleged role in the scam is being questioned.
“The Union Home Ministry, in its wisdom, decided to entrust this task to the Delhi Crime Branch while it is common knowledge that organisations such as the Central Bureau of Investigation are more qualified to take up cases like this. The cover-up started from that point itself. Naturally, one can suspect that real big players were involved in saving the first Manmohan Singh government in 2008 after the Left parties withdrew support,” the senior police officer said. He pointed out that Amar Singh aide and Lok Sabha member Jayaprada's statement that “big names would be in trouble if he [Amar Singh] opens his mouth” had to be read in this context.
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