Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Citing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the 2002 sectarian violence in Gujarat, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj Wednesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was rewriting criminal jurisprudence by bringing in the 2009 electoral victory to defend his government on the diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks on what has come to be known as the cash-for-votes scam.

The leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha asked whether the prime minister would apply the same yardstick for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the 2002 riots in the state.

Participating in a short duration debate on the Wikileaks expose that the Congress had allegedly bought MPs to win the 2008 trust vote in the Lok Sabha, the Bharatiya Janata Party leader also asked if the Congress’ electoral victory in 1984 general elections absolved it of the anti-Sikh riots that year.

“PM referred to victory in the 2009 elections to show that his party has an upper hand. He also said that his party had won that election despite the opposition raising the issue of bribes in the July 2008 trust vote. This is a new definition of criminal jurisprudence that the prime minister is writing,” Sushma Swaraj said in the house.

“In Gujarat, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has won the assembly elections twice, but still the 2002 riot cases are being pursued against him. In Gujarat, in two consecutive assembly elections, you made the 2002 riots an issue, but Narendra Modi won a huge majority. But you unleashed the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), SIT (special investigation team) and all agencies against him and his government,” she said.

Despite those victories in Gujarat, Sushma Swaraj said the BJP “never” demanded that the cases against her party leaders and workers should be dropped.

Referring to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the BJP leader asked the prime minister if he meant the cases against Congress leaders involved in the violence then should be withdrawn since the party under Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership won the subsequent polls with over 400 seas in its kitty.

“What sort of a right are you demanding here and who gave you this right. This is not the truth,” she said.

“Election victory or defeat cannot wipe away any crime. The episode (bribery in July 2008 trust vote) has made India’s head hang in shame. It has blemished our
democratic tradition,” she added.

Defending the Congress and the government against allegations in the “unverified and unverifiable” WikiLeaks cables, the prime minister had last week rejected the allegations that had “been debated, discussed and rejected by the people of India”.

In a statement in both houses of parliament, he had referred to Congress victory in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and said: “Upon the conclusion of the term of the 14th Lok Sabha, there was a general election. In that general election, the opposition parties repeated their allegations of bribery in the trust vote.”

“How did the people respond to those allegations? The principal opposition party (the BJP) which had 138 seats in the 14th Lok Sabha was reduced to 116 seats in the 15th Lok Sabha.

“The Left parties found that their tally was reduced from 59 to 24. It is the Congress Party alone which increased its tally from 145 to 206, an increase of 61 seats.”