The Janata Dal (United) has issued a show cause notice to three of its MPs caught in a sting operation for allegedly taking a bribe, while the Congress and the BJP have demanded that the matter be probed by the Ethics Committee of Parliament.
Party president Sharad Yadav has asked the JD (U) MPs to respond to the show cause by the weekend. “If they fail to comply, the party will be compelled to take a serious decision”, party general secretary KC Tyagi said
Congress leader and information and broadcasting minister Manish Tiwari said that the matter should be probed by the Ethics Committee of Parliament.
BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad also demanded a parliamentary inquiry, while expressing the suspicion that there was an “agenda’ to the Cobrapost sting operation. The issue needs to be looked at in the “larger picture”, he said.
The sting operation carried out by portal Cobrapost has shown that 11 MPs from Congress, BJP, JD (U), AIADMK and BSP were ready to write letters of recommendations and lobby for a fictitious foreign oil company for fees ranging from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 50 lakh.
The MPs seen in the sting videos are K Sugumar and C Rajendran (AIADMK), Lalu Bhai Patel, Ravindra Kumar Pandey and Hari Manjhi (BJP), Vishwa Mohan Kumar, Maheshwar Hazari and Bhudeo Chaudhary (JD-U), Khiladi Lal Bairwa and Vikrambhai Arjanbhai (Congress) and Kaiser Jahan (BSP).
{{/usCountry}}The MPs seen in the sting videos are K Sugumar and C Rajendran (AIADMK), Lalu Bhai Patel, Ravindra Kumar Pandey and Hari Manjhi (BJP), Vishwa Mohan Kumar, Maheshwar Hazari and Bhudeo Chaudhary (JD-U), Khiladi Lal Bairwa and Vikrambhai Arjanbhai (Congress) and Kaiser Jahan (BSP).
{{/usCountry}}Reacting to the sting, one of the 11 MPs, Maheshwar Hazari of the JD (U), has been quoted as saying, “It is a political conspiracy. I have not received any money, nor given any letter.