Author: Agencies
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: September 17, 2011
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Bribe-givers-thought-BJP-MPs-vulnerable--Advani/848053/0
Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Saturday said
the party MPs, who exposed the cash-for-vote scam in Parliament, were approached
by bribe-givers as they presumed the three law makers would be vulnerable
since they belong to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
In his latest blog posting, Advani pushed
for an effective legislation to protect whistleblowers and cited the example
of IOC employee Manjunath Shanmugham and NHAI employee Satyendra Dubey, who
were both killed for exposing the corrupt.
Advani lamented in the blog that two of the
three whistleblower MPs in the cash-for-vote scam, Faggan Singh Kulaste and
Mahavir Bhagora, were arrested even though they had exposed attempts to buy
MPs for the July 2008 Trust Vote.
"The three MPs, who made history in 2008
by laying bare this scam were Kulaste, a tribal, Bhagora and Argal, both Scheduled
Caste. Obviously, those who approached them with cash presumed that these
MPs would be vulnerable," Advani wrote on his blog.
Advani was Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
in 2008.
He recounts how he was "extremely upset"
when on September 6 last, Kulaste and Bhagora were arrested and sent to Tihar.
Since Argal is a sitting MP, his case has been referred by the Lok Sabha Speaker
to the Attorney General.
Advani had raised this issue in the Lok Sabha
during the recent monsoon session and said, "If government thinks that
what they (the whistle-blower MPs) have done is wrong and so has put them
behind bars I would like to tell the Treasury Benches, I am even more guilty
because I did not restrain them. Send me also to Tihar."
Advani said on his blog that he holds the
cash-for-vote scam as the "most shameful" in the political history
of independent India.
"It has been a black spot not only for
the UPA government; it has besmirched Indian democracy as well," he said,
and hailed the three BJP MPs for doing "a signal service to democracy"
by exposing the "dark deed" of the government.
The senior BJP leader also refers to the Second
Administrative Reforms Commission headed by M Veerappa Moily which had emphasised
on giving statutory protection to whistleblowers and declared it an "ethical
act."
"Statutory protection may be necessary
for government employees. But for Members of Parliament ethical conduct is
a justification by itself," Advani said.
The main opposition has been demanding that
a Whistleblowers Protection Bill be passed at the earliest.
