UPA govt bribed its way out of 2009 threat, suggests Wikileaks cable
Yahoo! India News – 1 hour 18 minutes ago
An aide of Congress leader Satish Sharma allegedly showed two chests filled with cash to a US official, boasting that it would be used to buy support for the Manmohan Singh government.
The revelation comes from a Wikileaks cable, accessed by the Chennai-based newspaper The Hindu. The UPA government was facing a trust vote in 2009 when it decided to go in for a nuclear deal with the US. It eventually won the vote.
Wednesday's edition of The Hindu reports: "Five days before the Manmohan Singh government faced a crucial vote of confidence on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal in 2008, a political aide to Congress leader Satish Sharma showed a U.S. Embassy employee "two chests containing cash" he said was part of a bigger fund of Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 60 crore that the party had assembled to purchase the support of MPs."
The paper has accessed Wikileaks documents, and is publishing their contents in a series of articles. Satish Sharma is close to the Gandhi family, and was a personal friend of slain prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The aide reportedly said four MPs of Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal had already been paid Rs 10 crore each to ensure they voted in favour of the government the Lok Sabha.
The Manmohan Singh government survived the trust vote, with 273 voting for it, 251 opposing it, and 19 remaining absent.
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