We can’t fight terror with Patil as Home Minister: Amar Singh

New Delhi, Sept 25: Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh on Thursday lashed out at Home Minister Shivraj Patil, saying the country did not stand a chance of winning the fight against terrorism if men like him were in office.

Amar Singh’s tirade was in response to Shivraj Patil reportedly refusing to respond to his plea for help when an alleged Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) worker Hashmat Ali tried to blackmail him.

The Samajwadi Party leader claimed Ali came to his residence Thursday morning demanding Rs.50 million to make a statement in his favour before the privileges committee of parliament probing the cash-for-vote scam.

“I called Shivraj Patil but he refused to send the police and instead asked me to register a complaint in the nearest police station,” Amar Singh told reporters.
“If men like Shivraj Patil are home minister, then the country cannot fight terrorism,” he said.

He claimed that Patil refused to help as he feared that the Congress party would unnecessarily get involved in an incident it wanted to steer clear of.
“If Amar Singh can get such a cold response, I can well imagine the condition of the common man,” he thundered.

He added that he had to send one of his assistants to the Tughlaq Road Police Station to register a complaint.

Miffed by Shivraj Patil’s attitude, especially as he had defended the home minister over his much discussed dress changes on the day of the Delhi blasts, Amar Singh said he would raise this issue at the coordination committee meeting of both parties.

However, the Samajwadi Party leader did not explain how the BSP party worker was connected to the cash for vote scam and why he had been asked to depose before the parliamentary panel.

The cash scandal came up during the vote of confidence won by the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in July after the Left parties withdrew support over the India-US nuclear deal.

The proceedings were marred when three BJP MPs interrupted the debate on the trust vote by waving bundles of currency notes and cliamed these were bribes offered by the government to them to abstain from the vote.

A seven-member Lok Sabha committee was formed to probe the allegations by three BJP MPs that they had been bribed. (IANS)

How the money changed hands!

Singh is King & The Kingmaker (Sentinel)

NEW DELHI, July 22: The three BJP MPs who surprised everybody by tabling Rs 1 crore in the Lok Sabha today named SP MP Reoti Raman Singh and SP general secretary Amar Singh for striking a deal with them and giving them the cash.“We were contacted on Monday and told the deal would be struck in Le Meridian hotel here but that could not take place. Later, SP MP Reoti Raman Singh came to meet us at 12:30 am at 4, Ferozshah Road and said please come with me to Amar Singh’s house where the deal would be finalized,” Fagan Singh Kulaste told reporters.Kulaste, along with Mahavir Bhagore and Ashok Argal, emptied a bag with Rs 1 crore in cash in the Lok Sabha today and claimed this money was given as advance to them to abstain from voting. The house on Ferozshah Road is occupied by Argal.“In the morning today, Ahmed Patel (Congress) discussed the deal with us. Thereafter, we went with Reoti Raman Singh to Amar Singh’s house where he offered us Rs 3 crore — Rs 1 crore each as advance — there and then. But, we refused to take the money and said it should be delivered at 4, Ferozshah Road,” Kulaste said.“About twenty minutes later a man came to the residence with two bags full of cash and put it on the table. I asked him to open the bags to show whether the cash was real or fake. Then he took out Rs 1 crore in cash,” said Mahavir Bhagora, another BJP MP who had displayed the wads in the House.“A man telephoned Amar Singh who told me this money is an advance for the deal,” Argal said. PTI source: sentinel assam

The Parliament has lost " Confidence" motion to the Nation

The drama which unfolded in the Parliament on Tuesday, embarrassed whole of the Nation. Read the chilling story of corruption, bribery, and horse-trading. Also read the comments of experts:

3 BJP MPs ‘sting’ SP men bribing them Rs 9cr to abstain

July 23, 2008, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The plan to ‘trap’ UPA’s vote managers was hatched on Monday evening, if the BJP's version of events is to believed. BJP, struggling to hold on to its flock that was allegedly being poached by the Samajwadi Party and Congress with the lure of lucre, apparently discovered that its MP from Morena, Ashok Argal could actually do a sting to expose the “murky game of buying and selling MPs". Remember Argal? He’s the BJP MP The Times of India wrote about on its front page on Tuesday. Argal, a Dalit, is set to lose his seat in the coming Lok Sabha election because of delimitation. So, he was antsy — and was being targeted by SP leaders. BJP got wind of this and speedily addressed his problem by promising him an Assembly ticket. Argal, in short, had decided he would not switch his loyalty. But SP managers, determined to swell the numbers for UPA, were not giving up on him, claims BJP. Argal is understood to have told his party leaders about their persistence and the leaders, in turn, told him: Trap them. The plan was accordingly hatched. When SP MP from Allahabad, Reoti Raman Singh, called on Argal at his 4, Ferozeshah Road residence late on Monday night, the BJP MP was prepared. Argal told Reoti Raman that not just him, but two more BJP MPs — Mahavir Bhagora and Faggan Singh Kulaste, both tribals — were willing to jump fence. Reoti Raman is said to have fixed a meeting between the BJP MPs and Amar Singh next morning. This visit of the SP member to Argal's residence is said to have been recorded by stealth on camera by a TV journalist from a TV news channel, CNNIBN, who had been tipped off.

On Tuesday morning, Argal and Kulaste reached Amar Singh’s residence at 27, Lodhi Estate. BJP sources alleged Amar Singh told the BJP MPs that the UPA already had the necessary number of MPs to win the vote. So, he was not in a position to give them too much money. Still, he was prepared to give them Rs 3 crore each for abstaining from voting. To seal the deal by building greater confidence in the BJP MPs, the BJP MPs claim Amar Singh got them to speak to someone on phone who he said was Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, Ahmad Patel. The MPs claim they played along and agreed to the deal. But they pointed out that with television crew deployed 24x7 outside Amar Singh’s residence, it was not possible to carry out wads of notes. Amar Singh is claimed to have offered to have the money delivered. Soon, Sanjeev Saxena, Amar Singh's personal aide, went to Argal's residence with a bag. This visit too is said to be have been recorded on camera, which also captured Saxena taking out wads of currency notes. The BJP MPs claim Saxena gave them Rs 1 crore as “token money" and told them that the remaining Rs 8 crore would be delivered after they had abstained in the trust vote. In the footage which is now with the Speaker, Saxena is is also shown as giving the phone to Argal to speak with somebody whom the BJP MP later identified as Amar Singh.

Maya stands to gain : Ajoy Bose

The break-up between the Left and the Congress, forcing the latter to join hands with the Samajwadi Party before facing a trust vote, has come as a shot in the arm for the Bahujan Samaj Party. Irrespective of the outcome, Mayawati will have reason to smile

The fates appear to be conspiring with each other to give Mayawati a larger-than-life national profile just when she needed it in the lead up to the next general election. One palpable outcome of the crisis engulfing the UPA Government after the withdrawal of support by the Left is the way it has catapulted the BSP supremo to political centrestage. Almost overnight, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister has become the crucial lynchpin whose success or failure in influencing the trust vote in Parliament on July 22 can decide who gets to occupy the throne of Delhi.

This is a quantum leap forward for a leader who remained a regional phenomenon even after her spectacular victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll last year. It is true Ms Mayawati's potential as the most promising leader of the future had already started casting a long shadow on Indian politics. But until now she has had a marginal role to play in operative national politics dominated as it has been by the Congress, the BJP and the Left.

An extraordinary turn of events has ended this marginalisation in barely a week. Even as the Left seemed bamboozled at the defection of its staunch ally, the Samajwadi Party, to the Congress, and the BJP remained torn between gloating over the plight of the Left and worrying whether this gave the UPA a huge political leg-up, it was Ms Mayawati who changed the dynamics of the political situation with reports that the BSP had managed to poach some of the Samajwadi Party MPs who felt that they had better prospects by going with Behenji rather than Netaji (Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav). Although the number of confirmed defectors from the Samajwadi Party to the BSP is so far only three, the entire contour of the numbers game has been changed because nobody knows how many from the Samajwadi Party and perhaps even the Congress, the BSP supremo can ultimately wean away.

In a further boost to Ms Mayawati's stature, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat himself drove down to her residence to publicly declare an alliance to topple the UPA Government. This has been followed by discussions on the phone by her with Telugu Dasam leader Chandrababu Naidu as well as Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). Mr Naidu is expected to meet the BSP leader this weekend and she may even attend and address the UNPA meeting, an indication of her growing clout within the national Opposition.

For a leader who has so far had little do with regional parties with the BSP always determinedly staying away from any Third Front formation or national party-led coalition, this political interaction is of enormous significance. If the Opposition does manage to pull down the UPA Government in the trust vote, Ms Mayawati would soar into a different orbit and she would undoubtedly emerge as the main political victor of the battle while Mr Prakash Karat can at best claim a pyrrhic victory in the spat over the India-US nuclear deal. Indeed, a defeat on the floor of the Lok Sabha could trigger a major revolt within both the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, resulting in massive defections to the BSP not just in Uttar Pradesh but in many other States as well.

For Ms Mayawati, such a denouement of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party on the eve of the general election is precisely the kind of tail wind she requires to make a serious bid for power at the Centre. Her critical role in toppling the UPA regime cannot but have a huge impact on voters across the country in an election held within a few months at the end of the year. In many ways, this would largely overcome the BSP leader's handicap of being a dominant force so far only in Uttar Pradesh.

The survival of the Manmohan Singh Government in the trust vote would of course mean a temporary setback to Ms Mayawati. It could also bring in its wake considerable personal harassment in the shape of a vigorous pursuit by the CBI of the disproportionate assets case against her. There is little doubt that both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party would have a common interest in cornering her.

Yet, even if she loses her bid to oust the current regime, the central role being played by the BSP leader in the Opposition campaign to unseat the Manmohan Singh Government will be a major political asset to her. She has already managed to get support from virtually every single party in the Opposition, including the NDA, Left and the UNPA, on the fresh CBI bid to prosecute her. This would have been unimaginable even a few weeks ago.

The fact of the matter is whether she succeeds in toppling the Government or not this time, Ms Mayawati has already acquired the reputation of a major national player who holds the key to the future of Indian politics. Her new found stature with regional parties and the Left, along with her old contacts in the BJP and the RSS, provides her a huge number of options that will come in very useful after the next Lok Sabha election whenever it is held -- whether at the end of this year or in the early summer of 2009. It is highly doubtful whether the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh or the Congress in the country can change political logic at the grassroots level regardless of what happens in the trust vote.

Finally, one should not underestimate the reaction of Dalit voters across the country to television images of Ms Mayawati leading the current conflict against the UPA regime. Already an icon, particularly among young Dalits beyond Uttar Pradesh, the more the BSP leader steps out of her State to do battle, the more she and her party gains ground within her core constituency across India. Considering that Congress is heavily dependent on the Dalit vote in many States in the country, this spells trouble for that party in the next election even as it promises to make Ms Mayawati a potent nationwide force. source: http://www.dailypioneer.com

Cong MP from Haryana attacks UPA, hints at voting against govt

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) In more bad news for the UPA, Congress MP from Haryana Arvind Sharma today attacked his party and the Manmohan Singh government for "targeting" BSP chief Mayawati and indicated that he may vote against the ruling coalition in the July 22 trust vote.Criticising the Congress for cosying up with Samajwadi Party, the 45-year-old dentist-turned-MP from Karnal said he was "pained" at seeing the "falling standards" of his party."The government is succumbing to the pressure of Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh which is not acceptable," Sharma told reporters here.He said the Government was using the CBI to target "popular Dalit leader" and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at the behest of the SP leaders to remain in power."We are witnessing worst days of political bargaining in the country's democratic history," Sharma, who is also member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, said.In an indication of his closeness with Mayawati, Sharma said by targeting the UP Chief Minister, the Government has insulted the Dalits, minorities and people of Uttar Pradesh.Asked whether his outburst against the party and the government was an indication that he may vote against the government on July 22, the Congress MP evaded a direct reply and said he was not leaving the party.Sharma said the people of his constituency are "unhappy" with the decisions taken by his party leadership which is forcing him to "rethink" about his future course of action.There were reports that BJP was trying to rope in some MPs from Congress in Karnataka on promise of tickets in the next Lok Sabha elections. PTI

Life line to UPA

The suspense about the survival of the Congress-led UPA government appeared to have ended with Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh of the Samajwadi party publicly endorsing the government move on the Indo-US nuclear deal after seeking clarification on the deal from the ex-President and noted scientist Dr. APJ Kalam. The Left led by Prakash Karat, stunned by the U turn of the Samajwadi Party, issued a letter to the government giving a deadline of 7th July to indicate the government time frame to approach the IAEA so that formal parting with the UPA could be operationalised,so to speak.The Left’s anti US phobia made it blind to the benefit India would derive on signing the 123 agreement which would end India’s nuclear isolation and allow trading with 45-country nuclear supplier group(NSG) for Uranium to run the idle power plants. This is a historic blunder like the one committed earlier when the politbureau refused to allow the veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu to become the Prime Minister of India. The Left leaders, most of whom had not contested election in their life time like Prakash Karat,Sitararn Yechury,Brinda Karat would not care for the consequences of their action, particularly in West Bengal where ground beneath the Left had been eroding as evident from the results of the local body elections.Dr Manmohan Singh,Prirne Minister frequently dubbed as the weakest Prime Minister by Prime Minister aspirant L.K.Advani of the BJP must be having the last laugh. He proved to the nation that he could be tough when the situation so demanded and the Indo-US nuclear deal arranged after prolonged negotiation with safeguard to national interest could not be sacrificed at the insistence of the Left parties-a millstone that had to be got rid of. He could now go the G-8 summit in Japan with his head held high and move IAEA in mid July and expect to complete all formalities before September to meet the US dead line. The Indo-US nuclear deal would be one of the lasting legacies of the Congress led UPA government plagued by price rise and high inflation before it goes to next Lok Sabha election. The new found friendship between Congress and the Samajwadi Party ending long standing animosity might have given temporary reprieve to the UPA government but how long lasting it would be? Amar Singh in a television interview admitted that they committed a blunder in not extending support to Sonia Gandhi in 1999 to form the Government. The Samajwadi Party leaders would now demand a pound of flesh for their support. Already they have raised their voices against two central Ministers, Murli Deora for rise in petroleum prices and Chidambaram for failure to control inflation. Besides.Mulayam Singh has a disproportionate assets case pending against him. He would expect the Central government to go slow in the case. The Congress- Samajwadi Party alliance proves the adage that in politics there were no permanent foes. source: assam tribune