Last week, the parliamentary committee looking into the scandal submitted its findings. It appeared the primary focus was to clear political heavyweight Samajwadi MP Amar Singh of the charge of facilitating the bribe. The report furnishes verbatim testimony after testimony and produces laborious arguments to conclusively clear Amar Singh of any charge and also says that "there is practically no case against Ahmed Patel". Patel is a close aide of Sonia Gandhi and there has been whispers about his involvement. The committee took hours of testimony to conclude that there was no requirement for "the two Rajya Sabha members to appear before the inquiry committee for evidence".
Going through the report one can only conclude that politicians know how to save their own skins. While both the alleged bribe-givers and MPs who flung notes have been let off the loop, incidental players who can be described as small fish—L.K. Advani's political aide Sudheendra Kulkarni, who facilitated the cash drama in the House, Amar Singh's aide Sanjeev Saxena who carried Rs 1 crore to the MPs and Suhail Hindustani who acted as a go-between, will be probed further in the wisdom of the committee. CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat told Outlook: "The stakes were high and the committee appears to have managed a good cover up. We didn't have much expectations that the real facts would come out... even so, this is quite shocking."
The BJP made noises about "shooting the messenger" but the conduct of its MPs remains questionable. The real point—of bribes being given—has been quietly buried. And to top it all, LS speaker Somnath Chatterjee later says he would "act" against MPs who dared to criticise the findings.
