Though the videotape scandal involving Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati rocked the Lok Sabha for the second day on Wednesday, with the opposition demanding that the Central Bureau of Investigation be asked to look into it, the government did not see any need to order a probe.
According to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani told the Lok Sabha that he had received a letter from the chief minister giving details of the matter. Advani said he would forward the letter to Speaker Manohar Joshi and ask him if a statement could be made in the House on its basis.
When Congress chief whip Priyaranjan Dasmunshi insisted that the letter be tabled in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee intervened and remarked, "Everything need not be tabled. Certain things also need to be understood."
In the letter, Mayawati has reportedly claimed that the videotape showing her asking for a cut for the Bahujan Samaj Party from the constituency development funds allotted to its MPs and MLAs was recorded in February 2001, when she wasn't even the chief minister.
Sources said she has also accused Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav of collecting money from his party's MPs and MLAs to build a school named for his father in Etawah.
Advani also pointed out that the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha was in session and expected to debate a no-confidence motion against the state government. The videotape scandal could be discussed there, he said, and suggested that it was best to leave the matter to the state assembly to resolve.
Asked by reporters if these two statements were enough to deny an investigation, Swaraj said, "Well, even the opposition members did not press for it after the home minister responded in the House."
Samajwadi Party members had raised the issue during zero hour and protested against Mayawati's alleged corruption.