BJP cries foul over ‘cash-for-votes’ report

NEW DELHI: A day after the parliamentary panel probing the cash-for-votes scam gave a clean chit to SP general secretary Amar Singh, the BJP came down heavily on the report, describing it as ���a dark chapter in Indian parliamentary history,��� and as ���a subversion of Parliament.���

The BJP is now mulling over the possibility of challenging the report in the courts at an ���appropriate��� time. The conclusions drawn by the panel, the BJP feels, cannot stand judicial scrutiny.

The Congress, in the meanwhile, has demanded that a ���relevant investigative agency��� go into the source of the money brought into Parliament during the UPA government���s trust vote, the procedure by which it was brought in, its location and the MPs ���deployed��� to keep it inside Parliament .

Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said it was most important to find answers to these questions as the whole incident not only ���subverted Parliamentary democracy��� but was also a ���breach of security��� . The BJP, however, was unrelenting in its attack.

���Its a report in which the ruling combine and its supporters decide that one of them is innocent, ignoring all evidences . This is a certification of innocence by the UPA MPs. The government has now repaid the debt owed to the SP for saving it during the voting on confidence motion,������ BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley told newspersons here on Tuesday afternoon.