UPA LIVES ON, BUT AT A PRICE
As Many As 28 MPs Switch Loyalties On A Day When Cash Is Flashed In Parliament
Enriching Uranium Or Enriching MPs?
Over the past several days, there's been a flood of stories of MPs on both sides being bribed to switch loyalty. The payoffs are reported to have ranged from Rs 3 crore for abstaining to Rs 25 crore for cross-voting. On Tuesday, when three MPs started to disgorge stacks of money from a bag on the table of the House, allegedly given to them as 'advance' for a much larger bribe, our worst suspicions seemed to have been confirmed.
We are a nation proud of our democratic traditions. But along the way, our political class has brutally and systematically subverted every institution of democracy to a point where it has all but lost the faith of the people it was meant to serve.
If the allegations made in Parliament are true, then the guilty must be made to pay a very serious price. And if they aren't, it would imply an extremely cynical conspiracy, for which there should be severe retribution, too. The facts need to be established, and exemplary action taken. Anything less would be a betrayal of the nation's faith in democracy.
ABUSE OF TRUST: TV grab of BJPs MPs holding up Rs 10 lakh wads which they alleged had been given to them by Samajwadi leader Amar Singh's aides in return for not voting against the government in Tuesday's trust vote