privilege motion | BJP to move privilege motion against PM

BJP to move privilege motion against Manmohan

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the cash-for-votes scandal in the Parliament on Tuesday, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said.

The parliamentary ploy will look to dodge proceedings of the House to bring up the issue of the allegations faced by Singh’s Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of paying off lawmakers to win a confidence vote in 2008.

BJP will take on the Prime Minister for allegedly “misleading” the House by asserting that no Congress members were involved in vote-buying.

Defying resignation calls from BJP, the main opposition party, Singh had questioned the veracity of the claims based on U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks that accused members of his government of paying off lawmakers ahead of the crucial vote.

The trust vote, on July 22, 2008, had helped his government pass the historic 2008 Indo-US civil nuclear deal that paved the way for foreign countries to enter the India’s USD 150 billion civilian nuclear energy market, ending its nuclear isolation following the atomic test in 1974.

The deal faced stiff opposition in the country’s parliament over the issue of limiting liability of foreign suppliers that enter the industry and its slow progress frustrated U.S. analysts.

In a statement to the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Singh said, “No one from the Congress Party or the government indulged in any unlawful act during the trust vote…The government rejects the allegation as absolutely false.”
On Tuesday, Lower House opposition leader Swaraj tweeted, “…I am moving a privilege motion against the Prime Minister today.”

Her party had first raised the issue on day of the vote when BJP MPs dangled wads of cash in the House alleging attempts made by the government to buy out the lawmakers.

Investigations into the matter however allowed the issue to be cooled off.

Not likely to blown down easily this time, the vote-buying row, comes as the latest in the series of corruption allegations battering the Centre which include the massive telecoms spectrum scam, the Commonwealth Games irregularities and the Adarsh Housing scandal.

privilege motion | BJP to move privilege motion against PM