What a blast! Cash for nuclear votes

New Delhi, Mar 17: While there are reports emerging calling Wikileaks responsible for the uprising in the Arab World, the whistle blower website is making considerable impact back in India as well. The latest controversial cable on India reveals how some Congress leaders offered cash to MPs to win the trust vote on the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008.

The impact of the claims is echoing and resounding into something big and is causing more embarrassment to the UPA government. The diplomatic cables suggest that an aide of Congress leader Satish Sharma showed some US officials two huge chests of cash that were to be used to buy the MPs in order to pass the trust vote.

The cables also revealed the aide mentioning that Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) was bribed with Rs 10 crore for each of its four MPs to support the government.

The revelations were made in a cable dated July 17, 2008 that was sent to the US State Department, Charge d'Affaires Steven White where he wrote the attempted backhanded effort to coerce people into agreeing for the deal. The deal was made five days before the Manmohan Singh government seeked a vote of confidence to pass the controversial nuclear deal in 2008.

The Congress aide was also quoted as saying that the two stack of money was only part of another Rs 50-60 crore earmarked as pay-offs to buy the MPs. The clandestine dealing of the Congress party was also reveled when the aide that met the US official said that efforts were underway to get the Akali Dal on board and to cross out Shiv Sena from the vote. He also revealed that efforts were on to get A.B. Vajpayee's son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya into the fray to try and split those for and against the motion.

It remains a fact that the UPA led the trust vote with success with a record 275 votes in favour and 256 against the deal. After all, the colour of money did blind lawmakers, who compromised the nation's security and integrity for the sake of money.

OneIndia News