NEW DELHI, March 18 : India’s increasingly shaky coalition government is facing a fresh crisis following the release of an American diplomatic cable obtained by WikiLeaks which appears to reveal a government bid to buy support in parliament before a vote in 2008.
The cable claimed that an official from the ruling Congress party had told a US diplomat stationed in Delhi that a fund of between 500m and 600m rupees existed to pay parliamentarians to ensure the survival of the government.
India's opposition parties demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been under fire in recent months following a series of corruption cases.
The WikiLeaks report said an aide to a senior Congress politician had shown the American diplomat two chests of cash and said four lawmakers of a regional party had been paid 100m rupees each for their support. "Money was not an issue at all ... the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government," the aide was reported to have said.
A second official allegedly told the diplomat that formerly a minister "could only offer small planes as bribes" but "now he can pay for votes with jets".
The cable claimed that an official from the ruling Congress party had told a US diplomat stationed in Delhi that a fund of between 500m and 600m rupees existed to pay parliamentarians to ensure the survival of the government.
India's opposition parties demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has been under fire in recent months following a series of corruption cases.
The WikiLeaks report said an aide to a senior Congress politician had shown the American diplomat two chests of cash and said four lawmakers of a regional party had been paid 100m rupees each for their support. "Money was not an issue at all ... the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government," the aide was reported to have said.
A second official allegedly told the diplomat that formerly a minister "could only offer small planes as bribes" but "now he can pay for votes with jets".
No comments:
Post a Comment