India PM accused of misleading parliament

2011-03-19 11:29

New Delhi - India's opposition has accused embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of misleading parliament by denying he had any knowledge of a cash-for-votes scandal alleged in US cables leaked by WikiLeaks.

The uproar over alleged vote-buying by his Congress government to win a crucial 2008 confidence vote has led to opposition calls for Singh to quit and comes as the government struggles against a mountain of corruption scandals.

The accusation from the main opposition party late on Friday came hours after Singh denied in parliament any knowledge of the alleged bribery.

Arun Jaitley, upper house leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleged at a news conference that Singh "was not economical with the truth but completely at variance with the truth".

The BJP said it planned a motion accusing Singh of "misleading" parliament and would seek a debate on the issue next week.

Scandals

Singh's coalition was re-elected in 2009, but has become mired in scandals ranging from the cut-price sale of telecoms licences to graft surrounding last year's Commonwealth Games.

The alleged vote-buying incident occurred shortly before Singh narrowly survived the confidence vote over a controversial deal to allow India to buy US nuclear reactors and fuel.

Pushing through the deal, which ended energy-hungry India's civil nuclear isolation, has been billed as Singh's greatest political triumph.

US diplomatic messages released by WikiLeaks claimed that an aide to a prominent Congress figure said $2.5m had bought the votes of four MPs.

A US embassy staffer was shown "two chests containing cash" and was also told that $25m was "lying around" to ensure the government would survive the vote, according to the cables.

- SAPA