The BJP on Thursday accused the Aam Aadmi Party of doublespeak on the issue of whistle-blowers, after Arvind Kejriwal’s party announced that it would challenge the discharge of the former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and five others in a case of cash-for-vote scam.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the AAP decision was a “matter of surprise.”
“Interestingly, Mr. Kejriwal is exhorting everybody to do sting operations on corrupt officials. But were the AAP’s standards to be applied to such cases, then everybody would be guilty under 120-B [criminal conspiracy] of the IPC,” Mr. Jaitley said in a statement.
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“The AAP ostensibly claims to be a product of a movement which campaigned for the Lokpal and whistle-blowers legislation. It, therefore, surprises me that one of the earliest decisions of the AAP government would be to challenge the discharge of whistle-blowers by a competent court.” People cross-voted during the vote of confidence in July 2008 and monies were offered to MPs. “Admittedly, the three [BJP] MPs with two of their colleagues enacted the whole drama of receiving a bribe and getting an independent TV channel to record the same. They exposed one of the greatest scandals in independent India’s history. They were wrongly charged, and rightly discharged.”
Mr. Jaitley said the cash-for-vote scam was investigated by the Delhi Police and eventually the three whistle-blowers of the BJP — Faggan Singh Kulaste, Mahabir Singh Bhagora and Ashok Argal — who were charged with being part of the conspiracy in giving and accepting bribe were discharged. The same order was extended to two other whistle-blowers Sudheendra Kulkarni and Suhail Hindustani, he added.