Scandal of the century, says BJP after Amar Singh's arrest

New Delhi:  The BJP says that now that Amar Singh has been arrested in the cash-for-votes scam, he must explain who he was representing when he allegedly tried to buy the support of three MPs during a trust vote for Dr Manmohan Singh in 2008. (Read: Amar Singh arrested, sent to Tihar in cash-for-votes scam)

"It is the scandal of the century", said the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy minutes after Mr Singh was arrested, along with two of the three BJP MPs who he reportedly paid off. "Who was the beneficiary (of this arrangement)", asked Mr Rudy. "It was the UPA government, it was Mr Manmohan Singh. And how come nothing has been done against them...those who benefitted?"

The same argument was made by the Left. "Since the cash-for-votes scam has gone to benefit the Congress, the Prime Minister as the leader of the government, should clarify whose frontman Amar Singh was. He could not have acted on his own", said the CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta. The Left leader also underscored the close ties that Mr Singh had with the Congress in 2008. At the time, Mr Singh was the second-in-command of the Samajwadi Party, which voted with the government on key legislation as part of its "external support" arrangement. Mr Dasgupta said Mr Singh's arrest provides "eloquent testimony of how the Government was protecting criminals. The man, who was given 'Z' category security by this government, has had to go to jail. The right man is in the right place."

In July 2008, the Left pulled out of the UPA government over India's nuclear deal with the US. 

Hours before the trust vote on July 22, three BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - walked into the Lok Sabha waving bundles of cash. The Delhi Police says that in the hours before Dr Singh's trust vote, the BJP MPs were given a crore to abstain during the vote. They were promised a total of three crores each after the vote. The money, they said, was sent to them by Mr Singh.

The evidence against Mr Singh who was then a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party includes phone call records, and the fact that a car owned by his company delivered the cash to the MPs at one of their homes. Mr Singh's lawyers have dismissed this as circumstantial evidence.  

Mr Singh has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The trio of MPs has been charged with accepting bribes. Because their terms as MPs have expired, Mr Kulaste and Mr Bhagora were also arrested today. Mr Argal is still a Lok Sabha MP so the Speaker of the House, Meira Kumar, has to sanction proceedings against him.  

Mr Argal said today that the charges against him and his colleagues are unjust, because "whistleblowers have been declared the accused".

The BJP has in the past used the same line of defence for the other main player in the cash-for-votes scam, Sudheendra Kulkarni. In 2008, Mr Kulkarni was an advisor to senior BJP leader LK Advani. Mr Kulkarni has been accused by the police of urging the three MPs to peddle themselves on the political black market. Mr Kulkarni has said his attempt was to expose the UPA and its desperation to buy support to stay in power. Mr Kulkarni had also been summoned to court today, but is travelling in America.