Bowing to the Bharatiya Janata Party's demand, the government has agreed for a discussion on Tuesday on the statement of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Wikileaks expose in which he has rejected allegations of bribery of lawmakers against the United Progressive Alliance-I in the 2008 trust vote.
Rajya Sabha sources said Chairman Hamid Ansari has accepted the BJP notice for a discussion that will start at 1400 hours. They said it would be taken up in the Lok Sabha later in the day. However, they said a decision on the notice for a privilege motion against the prime minister for 'misleading' the Parliament will take sometime.
Singh had made a statement in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha last week strongly rejecting the allegations of bribery against UPA government or Congress. Nobody from the Congress or the government engaged in any 'unlawful act' and the charges were 'unverified and speculative', Singh had said adding the charges have been "debated, discussed and rejected by the people of India".
Dr Singh had said that the allegations of bribery were investigated by a committee of the 14th Lok Sabha, which concluded that there was insufficient evidence to draw any conclusion.
The BJP has moved a privilege motion against the PM for "misleading" Parliament. It said Dr Singh's statement was contradictory to the findings of a Parliamentary committee, which went into the issue.
Both the Houses witnessed a clash on Friday over BJP's demand for immediate discussion on the corruption charges following disclosure of US embassy cables by the Wikileaks. The government said while it was ready for such a debate, the Finance Bill should be given priority.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley sought to know the fate of his two notices -- one on privilege motion against the Prime Minister and the other seeking a discussion under Rule 176, which does not entail voting.
