New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday accused Home Minister P. Chidambaram of conflict of interest, saying that Delhi police, which is investigating the 2008 cash-for-votes bribery allegations, reports to him.
BJP member S.S. Ahluwalia raised the party's objections during the discussion on the 2008 cash-for-votes bribery charges soon after Chidambaram began his speech in the Rajya Sabha. The discussion came after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement in parliament last week on the alleged effort to buy votes during the confidence vote that hit parliament in 2008.
Ahluwalia was not given permission by the chair to speak but Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley later raised the issue after Chidambaram read from a magazine report that the July 2008 sting operation to unearth cash-for votes scam was not an independent journalistic exercise.
Referring to his notes taken from the report, Chidambaram alleged that "a deliberate attempt had been made to destabilise a sitting government by engineering a situation".
Jaitley said there was a clear conflict in Chidambaram's position.
"Delhi police reports to him (Chidambaram)," he said.
The BJP leader said that the chair was allowing Chidambaram to demolish investigation of his own police.
"Let him authenticate... If he is relying on the report, let him say it is true and I authenticate," Jaitley said.
Chidambaram said that the investigating officials do not report to him. "I am not the investigating officer. The evidence will go to magistrate," he said.
The minister said that Delhi Police will also look into the report brought out by the magazine that the cash-for-votes controversy, in which MPs were alleged to have been offered bribes for supporting the United Progressive Alliance government during the 2008 trust vote, was not an independent journalistic sting operation.
The minister, who replied to the charges made by Jaitley, said the UPA government enjoyed confidence of people in its previous term and continues to do so in its present term. "Whatever steps you resort to, we will continue to serve the people," he said.