11 MPs expelled in cash-for-query scam

BJP stages walk-out as House debates Bansal report

The Lok Sabha today expelled 10 members and the Rajya Sabha one after they had been shown in a television sting operation taking cash for putting up questions in Parliament.

After tabling the Pawan Kumar Bansal committee report probing the sting operation, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee introduced a resolution asking for the expulsion of the members while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did the same in the Rajya Sabha.

The BJP, which argued that the matter should be referred to the Privileges Committee before any decision was taken, walked out before voting in the Lok Sabha.

Moving the expulsion motion, Mukherjee said the members should rise to the occasion to maintain the dignity of the House "as certain duties ought to be discharged, however painful they may be". He said it was not a matter of legality "but the question is to ask our conscience what we should do in this given situation".

BJP deputy leader VK Malhotra, however, said although there were no two opinions that anybody found indulging in corruption and violating the dignity of the House must be punished, the matter should be examined by the Privileges Committee. He moved an amendment to that effect.

Malhotra said while suspension for a specified period or reprimanding the members were understandable, for expulsion, the members had to be given full opportunity to have their say.

Citing the case of HG Mudgal who was expelled by the provisional Parliament in 1951, Malhotra said the member was allowed to bring his lawyer and cross-examine witnesses over a five-month period before a decision was taken.

Leader of the Opposition LK Advani said the punishment meted out to the 10 MPs was not commensurate to their crime. "Corruption it was, but more than that it was stupidity. They fell for the lure of the sting operation. Therefore, the punishment is not at all commensurate with the crime. This is why the BJP walked out," he said.

The Opposition got unexpected support from the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. Mohan Singh (SP) said the MPs all came from deprived sections of society.

"If we expel them today, the impression in the class to which these MPs belong will feel that the big leaders in Delhi have expelled their leaders for a small mistake," he said. He appealed that the matter be referred to the Privileges Committee.

Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, in fact, set the cat among the pigeons in the Opposition benches when he said that to vote against the resolution of expulsion was to support corruption.

This led to some acrimony, with the BJP members saying that asking that the matter to be examined in detail was not tantamount to supporting corruption.

NDA ally Janata Dal (U), however, spoke against the BJP amendment saying that the dignity of the House had been hurt.

"The very fact that the MPs had refused to see the unedited version of the tapes is an admittance of guilt. On the one hand, we asked Natwar Singh to resign and now we cannot sit back on this. If we can mete out punishment, we have to learn to take it as well," said Prabhunath Singh of the JD(U).

Parliament adjourned sine die today to convene for the Budget session next year.