Whose Cash, and How?

The allegation of three BJP MPs that the Samajwadi Party wanted to bribe them with Rs 3 crore each, and paid Rs 1 crore as advance to each of them to abstain from voting and thus bail out the government, needs to be probed at the earliest and in the right earnest. The allegation is serious, so are the equations that might have gone into the making of that unsavoury episode. A TV channel, CNN-IBN, has claimed to have recorded everything in a sting operation after being tipped off. This should make the probe much easier, and quicker too, provided there is substance in what is being really claimed. What is clear was the desperation of parties to get the numbers fixed, either by abstention or by cross-voting (as many as 14 MPs cross-voted for the government and five against it). The impression, therefore, is that money did play its role in deciding the fate of the UPA government — and it is natural for the people of the country to infer this, given the role money plays in this country’s politics. The question remains: Whose were the wads of notes on display in the Lok Sabha, and how could they be managed — by whoever? The nation must know. source: sentinel assam