Invoking social activist Anna Hazare and claiming that he was a member of the non-political civil society domain, Sudheendra Kulkarni, who was arrested on Tuesday and sent to the Tihar Central Jail, circulated a statement to the media in which he dubbed the cash-for-vote scandal the “most shameful case of political corruption in the history of Indian Parliament.”
Stating that he had fully cooperated with the Delhi Police Crime Branch during the investigation and that the reason he sought exemption from personal appearance was not intended to avoid the court, Mr. Kulkarni said “it cannot be that I can be an accused in this case.”
“Along with my associates — three BJP MPs and Suhail Hindustani — I attempted to expose the purchase of MPs for securing victory in the confidence vote that the then government [UPA] was seeking in the Lok Sabha in July 2008.” He also referred to the five weekly columns he claimed to have written in a newspaper — three before the trust vote on July 22, 2008, and two after — expressing anguish at the “brazen horse trading of Opposition and independent MPs.”
He wondered how he would attempt to benefit from bribe-giving when he chose to enlist the cooperation of a news channel to video-record the entire operation. “The whistle-blowing operation was conducted with the full knowledge and consent of the top leadership of the BJP, with which I was then associated as a full-time activist.”
Applauding BJP leader L.K. Advani for daring the Crime Branch to arrest him also and for proclaiming that he was as “guilty” as the two former party MPs who were arrested in the case, Mr. Kulkarni said he had the “highest respect” for Mr. Advani.
Emphasising that he was not with any political party now and claiming that he was one of the “millions of ordinary Indians in the non-political civil society domain,” Mr. Kulkarni called on honest people in all political parties to take effective steps to de-pollute India's democracy and rid politics of the cancer of corruption. “This has also been the ringing message of the recent anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare.”
