Government protecting ''corrupt'' ministers: Advani

New Delhi, Oct 3: Backing his jailed party members, BJP veteran L K Advani today (Oct 3) accused the government of putting "whistle-blowers" behind bars while protecting its "corrupt ministers" and said this was happening despite a bill being introduced in Parliament to protect those who expose scams.

"It is indeed shocking to find that the ruling party these days is exerting its utmost to protect corrupt ministers but has no qualms putting whistle-blowers behind bars," Advani said in his latest blog posting referring to the 2G scam and two of BJP's ex-MPs and his former close aide being sent to judicial custody in the 2008 cash-for-vote scam.

Advani recalled that the Manmohan Singh Cabinet approved a Bill which protects whistle-blowers based on Law Commmission's report submitted to the government in December 2001. The whistle-blowers'' protection bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.

"The Bill has not become law as yet. But the Cabinet having approved of it, government should feel committed to its core principle," he said.

Advani said his former aide Sudheendra Kulkarni along with ex-MPs Fagan Singh Kulaste and Mahaveer Bhagora had "rendered a signal service to democracy by blowing the whistle to expose how in 2008 crores were given as bribes to Lok Sabha MPs to cross vote in favour of the Congress," to win the trust vote when the Left parties had withdrawn support to the UPA I.

Quoting a WikiLeaks report on the events surrounding the trust vote, he said the Manmohan Singh government "not only indulged in massive bribery to buy MPs to its side, but had no shame flaunting its dirty plans before U S Embassy officials only to reassure the that the UPA government was not going to fall, and that the Indo-U.S. Nuclear deal will go through".

At the valedictory session of the BJP National Executive in New Delhi last week, Advani had referred to the Prime Minister's comment about the opposition becoming impatient to see UPA government's ouster.

"I said that in the country today, not only in the media, but also among the people, opinion is unanimous that the UPA Government is in an unenviable mess. This fact is also widely recognised that the mess is of the Congress' own making. I described the UPA Government as being in a suicidal mode," he said quoting his speech.

Advani said he had once openly claimed that Janata Party, of which he was part, was on a "suicidal mood." The BJP leader made a reference to lemmings-small rodents usually found in or near the Arctic. Large numbers of lemmings start marching towards the sea and while some swim and survive, most die, he said.

"I wrote then that the Janata party seems to be in the grips of a lemmings complex. One can say the same thing about the UPA Government today," he said.

PTI