New Delhi, July 24
The Lok Sabha secretariat today asked the BJP MPs involved in the cash for vote incident, that rocked Parliament on July 22, to first file a formal complaint in the matter.
As of now, the case holds no merit so far as the office of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha goes, because it does not stand on the complaints of MPs who alleged bribery by Amar Singh in the first place. “Tapes of the deal per se have no relevance under rules. The Speaker’s office will intervene only after it receives in writing what is sought to be said or alleged,” sources in the Lok Sabha secretariat told The Tribune today.
The secretariat has issued letters to BJP MPs Ashok Argal, Mahavir Bhagora and Fagan Singh Kulste, who had on July 22 displayed 10 bundles of currency notes of denomination of Rs 1,000 each in the Lower House, and alleged bribery at the behest of Amar Singh. The incident led to dramatic scenes, with the Opposition shouting down at the UPA. The House had to be eventually adjourned.
Secretariat sources said they expected a quick response from the BJP MPs. They added that the currency notes flashed in Parliament and the alleged TV footage of the deal were both in their custody. As regards the privilege notices moved by the Samajwadi Party against the BJP MPs for maligning the image of sitting SP members, the Speaker’s office is yet to take a final view. The matter had not been referred to the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha until this evening.
As regards the fate of the alleged bribery case, the matter in all likelihood will be referred to the ethics committee of the Lok Sabha, which was set up on May 16, 2000. The matter will, however, be first examined by the
Speaker, who has asked the BJP MPs to furnish their statements in detail. In any case, proceedings in this case will be different from those in the JMM bribery case, which surfaced in July 1993 when the P.V. Narsimha Rao government was facing a vote of no-confidence. At that time, there was no ethics committee for the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. The bribed MPs of the JMM — Suraj Mandal, Shibu Soren, Simon Marandi and Shailendra Mahato — claimed immunity under Article 105 (2) of the Constitution, which says no proceedings can be initiated against members for any vote given or anything said on the floor of the House.
They got away temporarily until Rashtriya Mukti Morcha president Ravinder Kumar approached the CBI on January 1, 1996, and sought FIRs against the erring MPs. The CBI booked them on March 25, 1996. A major turn in the case came with the April 17, 1998, three-two verdict of the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Article 105 (2) of the Constitution provided immunity to bribe-takers — Mandal, Soren, Marandi, Mahato, R.L. Yadav, Roshan Lal, Anadicharan Das, Abhay Pratap Singh, Haji Ghulam Mohammed — as their act involved voting in Parliament. The Supreme Court, however, said those accused of giving bribes were liable to prosecution
In the case at hand, the matter will not be referred directly to the court, as the Lok Sabha now has its own ethics committee to look into members’ misconduct.
