Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005 |
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Politics Industry & Economy - Economic Offences 11 MPs pay the price in money-for-questions scam Our Bureau
New Delhi , Dec. 12 AFTER the Volcker report on the UN oil-for-food scam, Parliament was rocked again today with another corruption exposé - video footage showing members taking money in order to raise questions in the House. The exposé, aired on Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, has so far `captured' 11 MPs, six of them belonging to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), three to the Bhaujan Samaj Party and one each from the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Stung by the exposé, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, consulted all political party leaders and subsequently issued show-cause notices to the 10 MPs belonging to the House. For the lone Rajya Sabha member shown on tape, the Chairman of the House, Mr Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, referred the matter to the Ethics Committee. The Speaker later told the House that all members concerned would be asked to submit their individual statements or explanations before 10.30 a.m. on December 14 and these would be placed before the Inquiry Committee constituted by him. The committee has been asked to give its report by December 21. Parties suspend members: Political parties too reacted with shock at the developments and have suspended the members involved with immediate effect. The BJP, which has the maximum number of MPs featuring in the alleged money-for-question scam, has also constituted an internal committee to probe the matter and recommend further action. The exposé conducted by the Web site Cobrapost.com and aired on the news channel was the culmination of a nine-month-long operation and was captured on 56 video and 70 audiotapes. Some 900 phone calls were also made to the MPs during this period. The money involved for asking questions in Parliament ranged from Rs 15,000 to Rs 1,10,000. Cobrapost also disclosed that some MPs had sought "annual fees" of Rs 5-6 lakh to raise questions periodically in the House. Members of Parliament have the privilege of asking questions of the Government on matters of national and local interests as well as any clarifications that they might be needed on official policies and programmes. But the questions are supposed to be raised purely in public interest and not at the behest of any individual or organisation.
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