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Wikileaks Images, Photo Courtesy: Blogspot.com
Cong, Oppn war over cash-for-votes scam
Thu Mar 17 2011 11 : 03 / New Delhi
Opposition demands UPA government's resignation after WikiLeaks cables reveal that UPA government had paid cash to buy votes during the trust vote over nuclear deal in the year 2008.

More skeletons tumble out of the WikiLeaks cables much to the embarrassment of the Congress-led UPA government. Cash to be used for allegedly paying MPs during the Manmohan Singh government's trust vote of July 2008 was shown to a US Embassy staff by an aide of Congress leader Satish Sharma.

With the opposition coming down heavily trying to corner the government, Lok sabha and rajya Sabha witnessed noisy scenes and had to be adjourned to reconvene later.

This shocking allegation emerges from what is reportedly the US Embassy's cable, dated July 17, 2008.

This cable was sent to the US State Department by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Steven White.

Watch: What has WikiLeaks revealed

Marked as number 162458 and stamped SECRET, this classified cable was accessed by The Hindu through the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

The cable written by the U.S. Charge d'Affaires Steven White is said to have written about a visit the Embassy's Political Counselor paid to Congress leader Satish Sharma.

It is Congressman Captain Satish Sharma, as he is called within his party circles, who allegedly told the U.S. diplomat that he and others in the party were working hard, to ensure the government won the confidence vote on July 22.

After describing the approaches the Congress leader said had been made to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Akali Dal, White allegedly dropped a bombshell of a revelation.

Just before the vote, the BJP produced cash on the floor of the House and alleged that this was the money the government had used to try and buy the support of MPs.
 

Also Watch: How Finance Minister is defending government

But subsequent investigations ran aground.

The secret U.S. Embassy cable, however, is likely to reignite Opposition allegations that bribery was resorted to on a massive scale to ensure the UPA won the 2008 vote of confidence.

How exactly did Congress leader Satish Sharma's political aide Nachiketa Kapur come into the picture? If we go by what the Cables released by The Hindu say, it was Nachiketa Kapur who revealed the whole game plan.

Kapur mentioned to an US Embassy staff member on July 16 that Ajit Singh's RLD had been paid Rupees 10 crore.

That money was allegedly to ensure that each of the RLD's four MPs support the government.

Kapur mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government.

The cable also alleges that the aide showed the Embassy employee two chests containing cash and said that around Rupees 50-60 crore was lying around the house for use as pay-offs.

RLD leader Ajit Singh says that his party had voted against the UPA in the trust vote, and the decision was taken much before the voting. He added that the nuclear Catastrophe in Japan vindicates the party's opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Agency/Source 
NewsX Bureau
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