KOCHI: In a startling revelation, former MP Sebastian Paul has said he was offered Rs 25 crore to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government in the no-confidence motion in 2008 after the Left front withdrew support to the government in protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal.
In an authored article published in ‘Samakalika Malayalam’, a sister publication of TNIE, Paul, who was a Left independent MP in UPA-I from 2004-09, said two persons had come to his residence (No 20, Rajendra Prasad Road) in Delhi, while he was alone. They claimed to be the emissaries of Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, who had been making all-out efforts behind the scenes to ensure the UPA government survived the motion, he says. “As an independent MP, the party whip or expulsion under the Anti-Defection Act did not apply to me. They approached me to give a ‘shock’ to the Left front as I was a CPM-backed independent MP. Mukherjee’s emissaries talked to me matter-of-factly. They offered me Rs 25 crore if I voted in the government’s favour,” Paul writes in the weekly, which hits the stands on Friday.
He says he did not fall for the offer as the money was unbelievably high, which made him doubt its authenticity. The incident also reminded him of the sting operation by a television channel a few years ago in which 11 MPs were caught taking bribes for asking questions in the Parliament.
“It’s always better to be on the vigil against hidden cameras in times such as these,” he writes, tongue-in-cheek. Paul says he realised it was not a sting operation when he met Vayalar Ravi, a Congress MP and then Parliamentary Affairs Minister, at the central hall of Parliament.
“Vayalar Ravi, who knew me from my days as a student at Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, told me that my name had been stuck off the list of MPs identified by Mukherjee who could vote against the motion. There were five independent MPs in the Parliament then. I commanded higher ‘value’ as I was a CPM independent MP. That was why the net was cast on me,” he writes.
P C Thomas was another independent MP at the time. However, he was not allowed to vote after he was found guilty in an election-related case. The Supreme Court had allowed him to sit in Parliament.
“Such opportunities come only once in a lifetime. Nothing happened to those who took Pranab’s bait or fell in his net,” writes Paul, adding that handsome offers were made not just for switching sides but also to those who stayed away from voting.
‘BJP enacted drama with Rs 2 crore in notes to destroy UPA govt’s credibility’
“Thus, the JDU MP from Lakshadweep fell sick after reaching Kochi and was admitted to Amrita Hospital. There were 10 MPs, like P P Koya, who stayed away from voting during the motion,” writes Paul.
He also says he knew of the LDF’s decision not to field him in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, he could have taken a ‘beneficial decision.’
“When three BJP MPs threw Rs 2 crore worth of currency notes on the Lok Sabha table alleging ‘notes for votes’, I looked at the size of the bundles. The Privileges Committee suspended all three of them. I was a member of the committee,” Paul writes.
He says since the money would be confiscated, the BJP enacted the “drama” with Rs 2 crore in notes to destroy the UPA government’s credibility.
“On Pranab Mukherjee’s direction, Samajwadi Party’s Amar Singh was making moves under the leadership of Ahmed Patel. Several MPs fell for the lure. Many MPs, including seven BJP members, voted in favour of the UPA, flouting party whip. Three BJP MPs later admitted that Patel and Singh bought them by paying Rs 3 crore each,” he writes. Paul says he remembered the 2008 incident when news emerged recently that NCP’s Thomas K Thomas (Sharad Pawar faction), and an ally of ruling LDF, offered Rs 50 crore each to two LDF MLAs Antony Raju (Democratic Kerala Congress) and Kovoor Kunjumon (RSP-Leninist)—to join the NCP Ajit Pawar faction, a BJP ally.
