Worried BJP on warpath

New Delhi, Sept. 6: The BJP today slammed the arrest of former MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora in the cash-for-votes scam, dubbing it the “century’s scandal” as the party sought to make a distinction between whistleblowers and bribe-givers.

The party also alleged that police investigations were silent on who the principal beneficiaries of the scam were and demanded a deeper probe into the role of the Congress.

But sources said the BJP was uncomfortable about the arrest of its former MPs and even more worried about the alleged role of Sudheendra Kulkarni, who has also been chargesheeted by Delhi police.

Kulkarni was accused of setting up sitting MP Ashok Argal, Kulaste and Bhagora to put themselves “on sale” in the political blackmarket to “prove” that the UPA was “purchasing” support to keep itself in power.

Since Argal is still an MP, the CBI has asked the Speaker for permission to act against him.

Kulkarni was L.K. Advani’s key political adviser in the run-up to the 2009 elections. Most BJP leaders suffered him silently because of his closeness to Advani. However, after the Lok Sabha rout under Advani’s leadership, Kulkarni exited from the party.

Many also held him responsible for “misguiding” Advani and prompting him to make laudatory references to M.A. Jinnah when they visited Pakistan in 2005. Kulkarni wrote Advani’s speeches.

Kulkarni, who was summoned by a Delhi court today, is away in the US for his daughter’s admission to a college in Massachusetts.

In public though, the BJP gunned for the Congress. “Who was the beneficiary of this arrangement?” spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy asked. “It was the UPA government, it was Manmohan Singh. And how come nothing has been done against those that benefited?”

Rudy said it was “the biggest scandal of the century which happened in Parliament” and added that “it was a matter of concern” that the major charge of who the beneficiaries were had not been “clarified”.

The party’s main contention was it was wrong to club “whistleblowers” with bribe-givers.

Another spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said initiating action against the whistleblower MPs was “completely malafide”.