‘6 of 11 were BJP MPs’: Congress on ‘cash-for-query’ scam after PM Modi’s speech

Congress on Friday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for blaming the grand old party for “losing opportunities” to scams and corruption cases during its 10-year rule.

Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in charge of communications, said that the prime minister blamed the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for a “cash-for-query scam when in fact 6 of 11 involved were BJP MPs”, adding that the Bharatiya Janata Party walked during the vote to expel the members following the resolutions moved by Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively.

“In his long rant yesterday, PM blamed UPA for the cash-for-query scam when in fact 6 of 11 involved were BJP MPs. It’s BJP that walked out during the vote to expel the MPs, after resolutions moved by Pranab-da & Dr. Singh. Would the Chair now expunge PM’s lies?” Ramesh tweeted, posting a Hindustan Times report on the 2005 “cash-for-query” scam.

The “cash-for-query” scam pertains to a sting operation by online news site Cobrapost that showed the 11 MPs accepting cash in exchange for raising questions in the Parliament. Out of the 11 MPs accused in the case, six were from the BJP, three from BSP, and one each from the RJD and Congress.

What Prime Minister Modi said

Replying to the motion of thanks on the President’s address in Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Modi said that the Congress turned every opportunity into trouble, and listed the scams that grabbed the headlines from 2004-2014, including the “cash-for-vote” scam during the civil nuclear deal.

The cash-for-vote scam is related to the infamous incident in July 2008 when BJP MPs displayed wads of currency notes alleging that the UPA bribed them to survive a confidence vote after the Left Front withdrew its support on the issue of Indo-US civil nuclear deal.