Scandal of the century

 says BJP after Amar Singh's arrest

New Delhi:  The BJP says that now that Amar Singh has been arrested in the cash-for-votes scam, he must explain who he was representing when he allegedly tried to buy the support of three MPs during a trust vote for Dr Manmohan Singh in 2008.

"It is the scandal of the century", said the BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy minutes after Mr Singh was arrested, along with two of the three BJP MPs who he reportedly propositioned.

In July 2008, the Left pulled out of the UPA government over India's nuclear deal with the US. At the time, Mr Singh was a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party. The Delhi Police says that in the hours before Dr Singh's trust vote, the BJP MPs were given a crore to abstain during the vote. They were promised a total of three crores each.

"Who was the beneficiary (of this arrangement)," asked Mr Rudy. "It was the UPA government, it was Mr Manmohan Singh. And how come nothing has been done against them...those who benefitted?"

Hours before the vote, the three BJP MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - walked into the Lok Sabha waving bundles of cash. The evidence against Mr Singh who was then a senior leader of the Samajwadi Party includes phone call records, and the fact that a car owned by his company delivered the cash to the MPs at one of their homes.

Mr Singh has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The trio of MPs has been charged with accepting bribes. Because their terms as MPs have expired, Mr Kulaste and Mr Bhagora were also arrested today. Mr Argal is still a Lok Sabha MP so the Speaker of the House, Meira Kumar, has to sanction proceedings against him.

Mr Argal said today that the charges against him and his colleagues are unjust, because "whistleblowers have been declared the accused".