India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: One of the most major and distressing events that took place was the rampant bribery that has swept across Indian politics in the past few years being paraded in parliament and on television. Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition, stormed into the central area of the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) waving thick wads of rupees that they claimed they had been offered to abstain from voting.

The bribery allegations were made as BJP MPs threw bundles of notes totaling one crore of rupees ($230,000) onto the Lok Sabha table. Three MPs alleged that they were offered nine crore of rupees ($2 million) to abstain by Samajwadi Party, the Uttar Pradesh party that has provided the basis of the government's support since Communist-led Leftist MPs withdrew earlier this month.

The sting, carried out by a prominent news channel, created a ruckus in Parliament just an hour before the trust vote, but, has not been aired till now. Meanwhile, the BJP has readied a disqualification petition for the eight MPs who had aided the government in winning the trust vote.

As the legal paperwork is being tied up, the debate on whether the party should have walked out of the trust vote when three of its MPs revealed cash on the floor of the House is still raging. Quintessentially, what has been established beyond doubt is that the bags of money are not just a metaphor for the character of our politics; they have become its means and its essence.