New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) Upset over the arrest of two former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs in the cash-for-votes scandal, senior party leader L.K. Advani Saturday pitched for an effective legislation to protect whistleblowers.


On July 22, 2008, three BJP MPs waved wads of currency notes in the Lok Sabha ahead of a trust vote, alleging they were given the money to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government.

Advani said in his blog that two former BJP MPs Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Singh Bhagora and sitting parliamentarian Ashok Argal were approached by bribe-givers as they presumed the three law makers would be vulnerable.

"When on Sep 6 evening I heard that two of the three MPs who had acted as whistle blowers had been sent to jail, I did feel extremely upset," he said.

"It made me say in the House on the last day of the session that I knew that they intended to place the entire bribe money on the Table of the House. If I felt that they were doing anything wrong, as Leader of the Party I would have stopped them," he wrote.

"If, however, government thinks that what they have done is wrong and so has put them behind bars I would like to tell the Treasury Benches, I am even more guilty because I did not restrain them. Send me also to Tihar (Jail)."

Advani said that the three MPs who exposed the government's dark deed have rendered a signal service to democracy.

"And Government, whose official report has emphasised that this kind of whistle blowing merits not only statutory protection but is an ethical act as well," he added.

Kulaste and Bhagora were arrested along with former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh in the case.