Opinion PM’s untruths

As an ordinary citizen of India,I am shocked to see that our national motto is sought to be changed to ‘Asatyameva Jayate—Untruth alone shall triumph’—by those at the highest level of government. I am constrained to say this because I was an eye-witness,in my role as a member of the whistle-blowing operation,to one crore rupees being given as part payment of a much larger bribery amount to the three BJP MPs by Sanjeev Saxena,an emissary of Amar Singh,who was the then general secretary of the Samajwadi Party. After the Left parties withdrew their support to UPA I over the Indo-US nuclear deal,the government had lost its majority in the Lok Sabha. The Samajwadi Party,which was until then opposed to the government,suddenly switched sides—how this happened is another instance of political immorality,but that is a separate story. However,even with SP’s support,the government couldn’t have won the confidence vote. That is when,horsetrading on an unprecedented scale started,with unbelievable amounts of money offered to Opposition and independent MPs.

I,who was then a BJP activist,decided,along with my other party colleagues,to expose this scandal after I acquired specific information on how the ‘cash for votes’ scandal was being perpetrated. Our whistleblowing operation,in which a leading television channel was an active participant,was a near-success. Even though the channel backed out of its promise of telecasting the tape of its recording of bribe-giving on the day of the confidence vote; even though significant portions of its recordings were suppressed when it did finally telecast the material a fortnight later; even though four UPA members of the seven-member parliamentary committee,headed by K C Deo,a Congress MP,tried their utmost to cover up the scandal; the material submitted to the committee was still so damning that what its final report stated flies in the face of the Prime Minister’s averment that no bribes were paid to secure his government’s survival. Specifically,the committee stated that Saxena “was a bribegiver wittingly or unwittingly” and recommended that his “role in the matter needs to be investigated further.”

The moot question is: why has UPA II done nothing to honour this critical recommendation of a parliamentary committee? The answer is simple. Any unbiased investigation would have conclusively established that Saxena was acting on behalf of Amar Singh,and that Amar Singh was acting on behalf of the government. The fact that Amar Singh,who was at the centre of the ‘cash for votes’ scandal,was not even summoned by any parliamentary committee,goes to show how the entire system was being manipulated to protect the wrong-doers. No doubt,the government will do the same to protect other bribe-givers named in the WikiLeaks disclosure. But there is a crucial difference between the information contained in WikiLeaks and that which has been submitted before the parliamentary committee. The Prime Minister can get away by saying that WikiLeaks information is unverifiable. However,neither he nor his colleagues can say the same about what our whistleblowing operation has already made available to Parliament. If the Prime Minister is honest in saying that “no one from the Congress Party or the Government indulged in any unlawful act during the trust vote”,let his government order fresh investigation and establish that truth—and not untruth—prevails.

I am ready to testify all that I have seen,known and done in this matter before any agency that the government may constitute—if at all it constitutes one—to further investigate this scandal. I am ready to face any punishment if my affirmations are found to be false. As a matter of fact,my detailed written submission before the parliamentary committee headed by K C Deo,in 2008 and other related information,including the three columns on the subject that I wrote at the time in this newspaper (‘Where is the proof?,asked the PM’—July 27,2008; ‘Parliament on Sale’—August 3; and ‘Solzhenitsyn,lies and videotape’—August 10) can be accessed from my blog http://sudheendrakulkarni.wordpress.com.

If individuals do wrong,institutions must punish the wrong-doer. However,when institutions do wrong—the Prime Minister of India is an institution,indeed the backbone of our democratic system—ordinary individuals must stand up and speak truth to power.

sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com