Advani calls cash for vote scandal as worst than Bofors scandal
30 Aug 2008, 2203 Hrs

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New Delhi, Aug 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader Lal Krishna Advani on Saturday called the cash for vote scandal as worse than the bofors scandal.

"The way the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has won the confidence vote in the parliament giving away millions of rupees to buy parliamentarians, I cannot compare the incident with any past scandals in the country. I think this scandal surpasses the Bofos in its gravity. It is most obnoxious," Advani said while addressing a gathering in New Delhi.

The cash scandal came up during the vote of confidence won by the ruling UPA, after opposition MPs interrupted a debate to wave wads of cash to protest against what they said were bribes offered by the government to them to abstain.

The BJP called the victory as an immoral victory.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has formed a seven member committee to probe into the allegations.

The Bofors arms scandal seriously dented the reputation of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's, then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and contributed to the fall of his government in elections in 1989.

Ottavio Quattrocchi, a key accused in the Bofors gun scandal is charged of receiving seven million dollar in bribes as a middleman in the 1.2 billion dollar purchase of artillery from Swedish arms maker Bofors AB in 1986 for the Indian Army. (ANI)