Manmohan govt cash-for-vote deal?‎

17 March 2011 08:20 am Views - 3510

The WikiLeaks India cables, accessed by The Hindu, claimed that Manmohan Singh-led UPA government used cash to win trust vote in Parliament in 2008 over Indo-US nuclear deal.

WikiLeaks said that five days before UPA-I faced a crucial vote of confidence in Lok Sabha, Congress leader Satish Sharma's aide Nachiketa Kapur showed a US employee two chests containing money to be used to bribe MPs.

According to a report in The Hindu, the aide said that he was part of a bigger fund of Rs 50 to 60 crore that the Congress had assembled to purchase the support of MPs for the nuclear deal.

Kapur also claimed that four MPs belonging to Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal had already been paid Rs 10 crore each, to ensure they voted the right way in the Lok Sabha.

The WikiLeaks cable accessed by The Hindu was sent to the US State Department on July 17, 2008. In the cable, US Charge d'Affaires Steven White described Satish Sharma as "a close associate of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi considered to be a very close family friend of Sonia Gandhi."

Satish Sharma, while interacting with a US diplomat reportedly told him that he and the others in the party were working hard to ensure the UPA government won the vote of confidence on July 22, the report said.

The report said that the cable makes it clear the Congress campaign to buy votes was not confined to the cash-filled war chests that Nachiketa Kapur and Satish Sharma had gathered.