Cash for votes

New Delhi: The government and Opposition are set to debate the Prime Minister's controversial statement on the cash-for-votes scam in Parliament on Wednesday. The scandal resurfaced after WikiLeaks published explosive US cables on the subject.

The government finally agreed to a short duration discussion on Tuesday after sustained pressure from the BJP and other parties.

Last week, the prime minister had told the Lok Sabha that no money exchanged hands during the 2008 trust vote over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said there was enough proof that money exchanged hands ahead of the trust vote. He is accusing the prime minister of ignoring the Lok Sabha panel report on the matter.

Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Pawan Bansal are expected to speak in the PM's defence.

The government is hoping to counter the Opposition by talking about Advani's so-called doublespeak on the nuke deal that also came up in another US cable revealed by WikiLeaks.

The whistleblower website confirmed a CNN-IBN sting operation that showed MPs being bought by the UPA ahead of that crucial vote.