The honourable leader of the Opposition said, “Why do you refer to the election results? Do election results wash out crimes?” Answer is ‘no’. We do not need to have a debate on that. Election results do not wash out crimes. If you read the prime minister’s statement carefully, you will realise it. The issue is: Did the government enjoy the trust of the Lok Sabha or not? Will the government enjoy the confidence of the Lok Sabha or not? You accused us that we were reduced to a minority; we were converting a minority into a majority by dubious means. Revelations and investigations based on those revelations show - I do not know what they will lead to - that the issue is, what the prime minister said was: “We always enjoy the trust of the Lok Sabha. You made allegations in the Lok Sabha. We proved the majority in the Lok Sabha. You went outside and made the same allegations before the people. We enjoy the trust of the people. We came back with 61 more votes. Your vote was reduced. Please read it in the context. Don’t distort a statement. The prime minister never said a vote washes away crimes.
Where from do you get this distorted, perverted interpretation of a simple statement that is based on trust? We were talking about trust, trust of the House...The question always was and the question always is, “Does the government enjoy the confidence of the Lok Sabha? Does the government enjoy the confidence of the people?” What was proved was, we enjoyed not only the confidence of the Lok Sabha, we enjoyed the confidence of the people. That is what the prime minister has said. Finally, Sir, there are revelations today. I can't vouch for these revelations. I can't say they are right or wrong. But these revelations - you can call them revelations, you can call them accusations, you can call them allegations - in the public domain, today, allegations that what was done in July, 2008 was not an independent journalistic exercise, but a deliberate exercise... am only saying, along with all that the Committee has found, along with the further investigation done by the Delhi Police, I am only pointing out, that there are allegations in the public domain that the correspondent was given a telephone number. He called the person on the telephone number.
There are allegations that the telephone number turned out to be the number of a prominent political leader. That prominent political leader asked them to call another number. And that gentleman then directed the so-called sting journalist to go to a particular address. There are allegations that when the first so-called sting operation failed, the clock was ticking and the Vote of Confidence was only a few hours away, there was a desperate attempt to find buyers for the three MPs.
They wanted to identify - in fact, to use the phrase of the honourable Leader of the Opposition; he said, "The ruling party was identifying targets"... (Interruptions)
Arun Jaitley: The news report has to be certified. You are, obviously, relying on it...
P Chidambaram: That is there in the public domain.
Arun Jaitley: You are demolishing the investigation of your own police. Therefore, you kindly certify it, and place it on the table of the House... (Interruptions) Otherwise, it cannot form a part of the record...
P. Chidambaram: The honourable leader of the Opposition said…(Interruptions) Sir, he promised that he will not interrupt me. (Interruptions) You promised that you will hear me out fully. (Interruptions) Sir, the prime minister’s statement categorically says that no one from the Congress party or the government indulged in any unlawful act during the trust vote in July, 2008. The UPA-I government always enjoyed the confidence of the people and of the 14th Lok Sabha. The UPA-II government has been formed in the 15th Lok Sabha and enjoys the confidence of the House and the people of India. That is the essence of our democracy. Do we enjoy the confidence of the people? Do we enjoy the confidence of the Parliament? I say with humility but with utmost confidence that this government enjoys the total confidence of the people of India and whatever you do, whatever steps you resort to, whatever so-called sting operations you resort to, whatever engineering you resort to, we will continue to enjoy the confidence of the people and we will continue to serve the people irrespective of your opposition.
Excerpts from Rajya Sabha debates on the prime minister’s statement, March 23
