This Newly Inducted MoS Was Once Jailed in Cash-For-Votes Scam

On Tuesday, Faggan Singh Kulaste made news for his induction into the Narendra Modi's Cabinet as a Minister of State. Eight years ago, the 57-year-old lawmaker made news for his involvement in a scandal that came to be known as the “cash-for-votes” scam.

Kulaste and his colleague in 2008 had claimed that they had been “bribed” to vote in favour of the Manmohan Singh government in the trial of strength in the Lok Sabha. That led him to spend two months in jail. Later, he was acquitted.

Veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, in his book, 2014: The Election That Changed India, had revealed the making of the “cash-for-votes” sting operation. Sardesai wrote:

The cash-for-votes scandal had broken out during the nuclear deal vote in Parliament in 2008. There had been much speculation at the time that MPs were being offered bribes by both sides but we were not being given any evidence. CPI leader AB Bardhan had even claimed that Rs 25 crore was being offered to each MP for their vote... 

He further wrote:

I was sitting in Parliament's central hall listening to the nuclear debate when Jaitley joined us. The BJP leader claimed some of his MPs had been contacted by the government to switch sides. ‘We are planning to expose this in a sting operation,' he said. He agreed to allow our cameras to be a fly on the wall, watching MPs being ‘purchased'. That evening, we got a phone call from Jaitley, and sent Siddharth and a production unit to meet Sudheendra Kulkarni who was supervising the entire sting operation. 

Kulkarni possessed an obsessive desire to see his leader as Prime Minister.

The silver-haired Kulkarni, a former journalist, had worked in the Vajpayee PMO. He was now an Advani loyalist with an obsessive desire to see his leader as prime minister. Kulkarni had also played an important role in shaping Advani's contentious homage to Jinnah. Now, he was hoping that the sting would bring down the Manmohan Singh government. With Kulkarni were three BJP MPs, Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora, who had offered to be ‘whistleblowers'. None of us had met or heard of these MPs till that day. 

Despite the scandal, Kulaste was inducted as Minister of State Parliamentary Affairs in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government. Later, he moved as Minister of State for Tribal Affairs.

For The Cause of Tribals

An BJP MP from Mandla (Scheduled Tribes) reserved constituency in Madhya Pradesh, Kulaste belongs to the class of politicians who have struggled hard to survive in politics. BJP watchers consider him a party's disciplined “man for all seasons”.

Otherwise a man of few words, he has been the party's voice in taking up issues concerning the Scheduled Castes and the Schedules Tribes.Heading the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, Kulaste and his colleagues said earlier this year in a parliamentary report that elite educational institutes like the Jawaharlal Nehru University should have no place for caste discrimination, but the malady prevails in an “overt and covert” manner in the premier varsity.

Kulaste has been a key tribal leader in Madhya Pradesh. He holds a Master's degree and is a law graduate.

(With IANS inputs.)

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