RTI activists hope to use public pressure to demand an independent
inquiry into the cash-for-votes scandal.
"On Tuesday, politicians put Parliament up for sale. Can we afford to
be mute spectators?" asked Kejriwal. "Rather than order any inquiry,
which is conducted in-camera or in secrecy, we request you to order
an inquiry which is thorough and is done in a completely transparent
manner. It should be conducted by people of unimpeachable integrity,"
the appeal said.
The intervention by the NGOs comes even as the BJP leadership was
still working on the draft of an FIR the party plans to file with the
police on the Rs 1 crore which its three MPs - Ashok Argal, Faggan
Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora - claim was offered to them
as "advance" for switching sides. The MPs claim they were offered a
total of Rs 9 crore.
"We don't want to take any chances in the case, the investigation
into which should logically reach right up to those at the top of the
UPA heap," said a source familiar with discussions on the issue in
the party. The information rights activists and others in the group
have demanded a copy of the tapes submitted by a major news channel
which collaborated with the MPs on the ''sting''.
The matter looks set to become an additional issue in the escalating
tug-of-war between UPA and NDA. While BJP leaders feel that the tapes
have enough evidence to warrant the prosecution of the bribe givers -
"the agent as well as the principal for whom he was working" - SP
general secretary Amar Singh has denied any wrongdoing.
On Thursday, he alleged a plot to malign him and the Congress
leadership and claimed that Sandeep Saxena, the purported bribe-giver
in the tape, did not work for him. Significantly, the NGOs who have
addressed their appeal to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee also sought to
play up his image as upholder of transparency, as they appealed to
him to accept their plea.
.....
reported by Himanshi Dhawan, 25 Jul 2008, TNN
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