New Delhi: Left parties on Thursday questioned the
silence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the wake of fresh
WikiLeaks expose suggesting that MPs were bribed by the UPA to
win the 2008 trust vote over the Indo-US nuclear deal.
"The Prime Minister must come and explain. Today was his
day in the Rajya Sabha and he was not present," CPI(M) leader
Sitaram Yechury told reporters.
The party also demanded registration of a case in the
`cash-for-vote` scam.
In a statement, the party Polit Bureau said the report
sent by US Charge d`Affaires Steven White should be the basis
for filing an FIR and initiating an investigation against
Satish Sharma and his aide Nachiketa Kapur, who were named in
the diplomatic cable.
The WikiLeaks expose, published in The Hindu, confirmed
what the Left parties had been saying in 2008 that MPs were
bribed to vote in favour of the government, Yechury said.
"It is a humongous indictment of the Congress and the UPA
government," he said and demanded an investigation into the
matter by the CBI.
Yechury dubbed the revelations in the expose as an act of
"gross moral degeneration and crass political opportunism"
and undermined Indian democracy.
He wanted to know why investigation in the cash-for-votes
scam did not continue. "Was it because it would have
embarrased the government and the principal opposition,"
Yechury asked.
The CPI(M) leader was addressing a press conference which
was attended by Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja (CPI), former
Prime Minister H D Devegowda (JDS), Nama Nageshwara Rao (TDP)
and Shailendra Kumar (SP).
Dasgupta attacked Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee`s
remarks in the Rajya Sabha that the matter of the 14th Lok
Sabha could not be discussed in the current Lok Sabha.
"It is the same government that is in power, the same
Prime Minister heads the government. Therefore it is the moral
responsibility of the government to prove that they are
clean," he said.
"It is not a legal question. It is a moral question and
an ethical question," he said.
Dasgupta accused Mukherjee of concocting the argument
by asking the opposition to move court on the matter.
"We shall not go to court. This is a matter for
Parliament do decide. The judiciary does not run the country.
The government runs it and the government has to answer," he
said.
TDP`s Nama Nageshwara Rao said the UPA had committed a
murder of democracy by buying votes for its survival.
"The UPA government has no authority to continue in
office. The Prime Minister should come forward and make a
statement. If he does not speak, he should resign," he said.
PTI
