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<http://centralchronicle.com/20080417/1704302.htm> Indian MPs offered $6m bribes Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | July 17, 2008 INDIAN MPs are reportedly being offered inducements of as much as $6 million each ahead of the confidence vote that will settle both the nuclear deal with Washington and the fate of the ruling coalition. Frenzied horse trading is said to be occurring in the lead-up to Tuesday's critical vote in the country's lower house of parliament (the Lok Saba). One authoritative analysis suggested the ruling 12-party coalition, led by the Congress party, still has not attracted the votes it requires from smaller parties and independent MPs to get the deal over the line. At a meeting with Indian newspaper editors, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared confident his United Progressive Alliance Government will win, and Congress party strategists talk of getting 280 votes in the 543-member Lok Sabha. But the opposition National Democratic Alliance, which is coalesced around the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, yesterday claimed it was within a whisker of getting the numbers to defeat Dr Singh. Reports of bribery and other inducements being offered to dickering MPs last night injected an incendiary new element into the hothouse atmosphere surrounding the imminent vote as two MPs said they had been approached and offered massive bribes by "men carrying suitcases". The MPs, seen as potential rebels from the socialist Samajwadi regional party that has formed an unlikely alliance with Dr Singh's Government over the nuclear deal, made their claims after Communist Party of India boss ABBardhan said he had been told MPs were being offered about $6million each to "vote to save the Manmohan Singh Government". The historic nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington was agreed in 2005. US President George W. Bush met Dr Singh on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Japan last week to discuss the pact, which would reverse three decades of US policy by allowing the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to India. In return, India would open its civilian reactors to international inspections. India has not signed international non-proliferation accords and has tested nuclear weapons. The communists say the nuclear deal would give Washington too much control over India's foreign policy and nuclear program. Yesterday, Chaudhary Munawwar Hasan, who has announced that he will defy the Samajwadi party's three-line whip imposed to support the Government, said he was "terrorised" when a man arrived at his New Delhi home and offered him the money "to save the UPA Government". This was countered by another Samajwadi MP, Akshay Pratap Singh, who told journalists he had been offered a similar amount, but to vote against the Government. "They asked me to take the money and stand by the opposition or face the consequences," he said. Both MPs said they declined the offers. By all accounts, unsubtle attempts to bribe MPs who show signs of wavering are just the tip of a massive iceberg of "inducements" being offered in the horse trading, with the Samajwadi party, suddenly the Congress party's new best friend after years of brutal political warfare, reportedly no shrinking violet in the race for favours. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24030755-2703,00.html Corruption row as Indian govt faces confidence vote NEW DELHI (AFP) — India's embattled coalition government has been hit by allegations it is offering bribes and lucrative jobs as it tries to muster the support needed to survive a parliamentary confidence vote next week. If the government loses, the world's largest democracy will go into early elections, and opposition parties -- especially the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- will be given a big political boost. With the stakes so high, opponents of the dominant Congress party have alleged big money backhanders are on offer to fence-sitting MPs who could tip next Tuesday's vote either way. The leader of the Communist Party of India, A.B. Bardhan, publicly accused the government of putting together a war chest containing millions of dollars of bribe money. "No one has principles any more," Bardhan fumed in a public meeting on Monday. "It's not a question of a few million, but 250 million rupees (5.8 million dollars) for horsetrading." The confidence vote was triggered by the withdrawal of support from a bloc of communist and left-wing parties opposed to a civilian nuclear deal that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh struck with the United States in 2005. The government says the deal would help meet India's exploding energy demands. The left and the BJP say the deal would tie India too close to Washington, and they are also railing over high inflation, notably food and fuel prices. A rebel MP from the Samajwadi Party -- which has promised to vote with the coalition -- claimed he has also been offered a financial windfall or a top job should he tow the party line and help keep the government in office. "I had expressed my objection to supporting the government," Munawar Hasan told AFP by telephone from his parliamentary constituency in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. "Very soon after that, I received a call on behalf of parties in New Delhi telling me that I could get a cabinet post or money -- 200 million or 250 million rupees -- if I voted for the government," Hasan alleged. The government has angrily denied "either directly or indirectly" approaching Hasan, or any other MP. "We are seeking support of MPs no doubt, but there are no offers of money or ministerships," a Congress spokesman said. Party leader Sonia Gandhi has predicted the government will sail through the test -- but the numbers suggest there could be plenty of nail-biting next week. At present, the government has 225 assured seats plus 39 Samajwadi Party MPs it can count on in India's 545-member Lok Sabha, or lower house -- leaving it still slightly short of the 272 votes it needs to win. The BJP, who themselves lost a confidence vote in 1999 by a single ballot, now smell blood and has slammed what it said were the Congress party's "desperate efforts to stay in power." "Trying to save the government by this method is unacceptable," BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said, saying his party was also lobbying hard for support but with "no money involved." Still, few Indians find the allegations at all surprising -- given that for many people paying bribes remains a part of everyday life when dealing with officialdom. Author and political analyst Rasheed Kidwai said high-level corruption was something that is "very difficult to prove and so it thrives." Only eight years ago, former Congress premier P.V. Narasimha Rao was found guilty of bribing MPs to win a confidence vote in 1993. But he was cleared by a higher court 18 months later. And the Indian chapter of global anti-graft watchdog Transparency International said the wheeling and dealing of coalition politics meant corruption was only to be expected. Bribing MPs for votes "is not unknown in Indian politics" said Transparency International's India representative, R.H. Tahiliani. In the present context, "not all MPs want to face elections" and will do anything to survive, he said. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jARmq_Z66MdaHETXWy7ec7YmvD8A * * *Jharkhand Directory @ Jharkhand.org.in/directory<http://www.Jharkhand.org.in/directory> * . -- Jharkhand News [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jharkhand Online Network http://www.jharkhand.org.uk
