New Delhi, March 19: BJP today said it will move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for “misleading” Parliament by saying that no bribe was paid to MPs ahead of the July 2008 trust vote, which, it alleged, was contradictory to the findings of a Parliamentary committee.
At a joint press conference, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley alleged that “it has now been conclusively established that MPs were bribed” to win the confidence vote.
“The Prime Minister and the UPA Government were principal beneficiaries of cross voting… The Prime Minister says he was not aware (of bribe being paid). But he is definitely a beneficiary. Under the law of jurisprudence, being a beneficiary of this offence he is equally liable,” Swaraj said.
The principal opposition quoted from the Kishore Chandra Deo committee report, which probed the cash-for-vote issue, to target the Prime Minister.
Referring to Sanjiv Saxena, who was allegedly caught on camera giving bribe to three BJP MPs, Jaitley quoted the report as having said, “Shri Saxena was a bribe-giver, wittingly or unwittingly.
“He, therefore, does not enjoy the immunity under Article 105 of the Constitution…… On whose behalf Shri Saxena was operating?….Therefore, his role in the matter needs to be investigated further.”
Jaitley alleged that, Singh, while making his statement in Parliament today, “was not economical with the truth but completely at variance with the truth”.
Swaraj alleged that the Prime Minister has denied in the House that bribe was paid while the Deo committee had insisted that there was exchange of money.
“This is a breach of privilege. We will move a privilege motion in both Houses of Parliament. Sharad Yadav (JD(U), Yashwant Sinha (BJP) and I have also demanded a discussion on the WikiLeaks expose on March 22,” Swaraj said, adding that Singh had “misled Parliament”. .
—-PTI—-