Cash-for-votes scam: Advani adds caste, tribe angle

Days after speaking out in favour of the three BJP “whistleblower” MPs in the cash-for-votes scam and challenging the government to put him in Tihar Jail, BJP patriarch LK Advani on Saturday added a “caste” angle to the raging controversy over the scam.

Days after speaking out in favour of the three BJP “whistleblower” MPs in the cash-for-votes scam and challenging the government to put him in Tihar Jail, BJP patriarch LK Advani on Saturday added a “caste” angle to the raging controversy over the scam.

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In a blog post, Advani made a pointed reference to the Dalit and tribal status of the MPs, and obliquely hinted, that they were offered bribes on presumption of “vulnerability” on lines of caste prejudice.

“The three MPs who made history in 2008 by laying bare this scam were Kulaste, a Scheduled Tribe, Bhagora and Argal, both Scheduled Caste. Obviously those who approached them with cash presumed that these MPs would be vulnerable,” Advani wrote on his blog. “Argal is a sitting member and so his case has been referred by the Speaker to the Attorney General”. While the police chargesheet suggests that the “bribes” were given as entrapment and the sting was pre-planned, the BJP maintains that it planned a sting not to “entrap” but expose “bribery” by UPA-1 to “survive” 2008 trust vote.

He recalled that when he learnt on September 6 that two MPs have been arrested, he challenged the government to send him to Tihar, as he was leader of the opposition when the sting had taken place and was “guilty” if they were.