PUNE, 15 December 2005 — Sharad Pawar, president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and federal minister for agriculture, has called for the unseating of the MPs who were caught taking bribes for raising questions in Parliament. Six of the 11 MPs belonging to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were immediately suspended by the BJP after the video clips were shown on Aaj Tak television.
Reacting to the sting operation Pawar told journalists, “If we want to send the right message to the voters, we must take stern action against them.”
The MPs were from Congress, BJP, BSP and RJD. Pawar said the disgraceful act of the MPs brought bad name to Indian politics.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent organization of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also criticized the errant MPs. The RSS chief of Western Maharashtra, Katcheshwar Sahane, said such corrupt MPs should be unseated. Another RSS leader said what happened was detrimental to democracy.
In another political development, former Lok Sabha (lower house) speaker Manohar Joshi, Shiv Sena leaders Pramod Navalkar and Madhukar Sarpotdar, met Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Tuesday night and urged him to resolve the differences between his son Uddhav and nephew Raj Thackeray.
Following Tuesday night’s meeting, Joshi met Raj Thackeray yesterday. He told newsmen after the meeting that a formula had been worked out to resolve the differences between the two.
In yet another development, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters in Nagpur yesterday that the State Cabinet would be reshuffled.
Meanwhile, an allegation by a BJP leader that members of the Andhra Pradesh assembly also took money to raise questions in the house has evoked sharp reactions from the ruling Congress and the opposition.
Speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy yesterday assured the house that he would look into the issue and take appropriate action.
