Too many charges too flippantly hurled
Congress MP Chaudhary Birendra Singh's claim that Rajya Sabha seats are up for sale, alongside reports that the anti-Modi letters addressed by a bunch of Indian MPs to President Barack Obama are in fact genuine, have collectively cast a shadow over Parliament. Both these issues must be investigated by the House, and those found guilty of dishonouring the country must be severely punished. Parliament is the sanctum sanctorum of Indian democracy — it is not an office headquarters of sorts for politicians, but a sacred space that upholds the soul of the nation. Similarly, Members of Parliament are more than just Government functionaries tasked with law-making; they represent and are responsible to the billion-strong people that have reposed faith in them. They are supposed to be men of honour, the guardians of Indian democracy. Consequently, when they fall — be it to greed or envy or ambition — it is more than just an individual failing. Reports that the political establishment has been peddling seats in the Upper House and that a handful of legislators went to a foreign head of state with a begging bowl merely to spite a political opponent are, therefore, a matter of national shame.
It is no wonder then that Mr Singh's statement on Monday that seats in the Rajya Sabha were retailing for Rs 100 crore — but he knew some who had grabbed it for an even lower price — has so shocked the nation. It is an unsubstantiated claim, no doubt, and one that the Congress MP from Haryana has since retracted, saying that he was misquoted. But given the gravity of the accusation made so casually, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha must initiate an inquiry at the earliest, even if it is to put to rest vile rumour-mongering. Besides, this is not the first time that there have been allegations of unscrupulous monetary transactions within the hallowed chambers of Parliament. No one has forgotten the disgraceful 2008 cash-for-votes scandal in which the Congress-led UPA regime was caught red-handed trying to buy the support of Opposition MPs in order to survive a trust vote in Parliament after the left withdrew from the ruling coalition. Two years later, a sting operation exposed MlAs in Jharkhand who were willing to sell their votes for a bribe of one crore rupees. Each of these incidents has dented the people's faith.
But even as one awaits the last word on the Rajya Sabha seat-for-sale controversy, the latest developments in the anti-Modi missive scandal have been just as disconcerting. Reports that a US court-certified forensic document examiner has found all the signatures on both the letters addressed to Mr Obama — one from lok Sabha MPs and another from Rajya Sabha MPs, requesting the President not to issue the Gujarat Chief Minister a US visa — to be authentic, adds another twist to the sundry tale. According to an Indian-North American group that claims to be seeking justice for the 2002 violence in Gujarat, the examiner found no evidence of a ‘cut-and-paste job’ or computerised alterations in either letter. Of course, this may or may not be true. Which is why Parliament must get to the bottom of the intriguing episode.
