Agencies/New Delhi  

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh poses with opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Sushma Swaraj at Parliament House in New Delhi yesterday

Prime Manmohan Singh yesterday rejected allegations that his government bribed lawmakers to survive a 2008 confidence vote, saying US cables released by WikiLeaks containing the charges could not be verified. But the opposition communists and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) mounted a joint attack on Singh for his not-guilty statement.The cables published by The Hindu newspaper suggested that Singh’s Congress Party had arranged payoffs up to Rs600mn ($13mn) to ensure a majority for the government in the vote over US-India civilian nuclear deal. Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower website, recently accused Singh of misleading the public by doubting the authenticity of the US diplomatic cables that had created a political storm in India. In his statement to parliament after a heated debate over the scandal, Singh reiterated his statement made on Friday that neither the government nor the Congress Party was guilty of buying parliamentarians. “I reiterate that it is not possible for the government of India to confirm the veracity or the contents of such communications,” Singh said. He added that many of the people named in the cables had strongly denied the veracity of the cables. “I would like to make it clear once again that none from the Congress Party or the government indulged in any such unlawful act during the trust vote in 2008,” he said. “We have not been involved in any such transaction, and we have not authorised anyone to indulge in such transactions,” he said. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta initiated the debate in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, on what has come to be known as the cash-for-votes scam. “His statement was firm, normally he is not. But linguistic fervour is something he has used to conceal facts.”He said a parliamentary committee that probed the scandal in 2008 had recommended that it be “appropriately investigated further” and the case was handed over to Delhi Police Crime Branch.“In a serious case like this, the appropriate probe was left to the Crime Branch, not the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), not the Enforcement Directorate and not the Income Tax department.“I have a feeling, excuse me. Appropriate inquiry was deliberately not done. Why? Because some political businessmen had to be ensured that will remain in the background,” Dasgupta alleged.Dasgupta said the prime minister’s justification of highlighting electoral victory after the scandal “cannot hide criminality if it has been committed.”“Over-emphasising the poll verdict by the PM has not brought honours to him. I suppose there is a tendency to propound a dangerous theory that might is right.”BJP leader Sushma Swaraj backed the CPI MP. Citing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 sectarian violence in Gujarat, she said Singh was rewriting criminal jurisprudence by bringing in the 2009 electoral victory to defend his government.Swaraj asked if the prime minister was willing to apply the same yardstick to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the western state.“In Gujarat, Modi has won the assembly elections twice but still the 2002 riot cases are being pursued against him. In Gujarat, in two consecutive elections, you made the 2002 riots an issue, but Narendra Modi won a huge majority.”Despite the victories in Gujarat, Swaraj said the BJP never demanded that the cases against its party leaders and workers be dropped.“Election victory or defeat cannot wipe away any crime. The episode has shamed India. It has blemished our democratic tradition,” she added.As the opposition joined hands, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal said the prime minister’s statement should have been enough to clear any doubt “but the opposition leaders believe that their utterances are divine truths, they suffer from selective amnesia.