Wikileaks Impact:Government cannot confirm or deny payoff report: Pranab

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New Delhi, March 17 : The government Thursday said it could neither confirm nor deny the alleged revelations from leaked US diplomatic cables of payoffs to MPs to secure their votes during the 2008 confidence vote.
As the opposition demanded the resignation of the Manmohan Singh-led government following the disclosures on WikiLeaks published by The Hindu newspaper and both houses had to be adjourned, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a statement that the cables between the US government and its missions abroad were inaccessible for the government of India and no comments could be made.
'There is a diplomatic immunity to what a sovereign nation discusses with its mission abroad, no access can be made to them, government cannot confirm or deny it,' Mukherjee said in the Rajya Sabha as the house reassembled at 12 noon after its first adjournment.
He also said the 15th Lok Sabha was not accountable for what happened in the 14th Lok Sabha.
'Every Lok Sabha is sovereign in its period; whatever happened in 14th Lok Sabha, cannot be dragged in 15th Lok Sabha. The 14th Lok Sabha has been dissolved,' he said.
Mukherjee also said the revelations were not admissible evidence in any court of law.
The opposition, however, refused to be pacified and Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley blamed the government for covering up the episode.
'Diplomatic immunity may be available to US diplomats, it can certainly not be claimed by government of India for a crime committed by Indians in India. That correspondence despite the immunity has already been published,' Jaitley said.
'It is easy to say the house was sovereign, all these factors do not apply when offence of bribery are committed outside the House. You are guilty of cover up.'
An angry Mukherjee challenged the opposition to take the matter to the court.
'(If) You have the courage, go to the court,' he said.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Sitaram Yechury said the enquiry should be handed over to competent agencies.
'There was a committee appointed, it recommended appropriate agency must investigate, what happened to that,' he questioned.
As the members refused to be pacified, Deputy Chairman K. Rahman Khan's attempt to take up the discussion on the working of the tribal affairs ministry were futile and the house was adjourned till 2 p.m.
Earlier, raising the issue as soon as the house met at 11 a.m., Jaitley had said the government survived on the basis of a political sin.
'The government which survived on the strength of such a political or moral sin has no authority. We demand that this government must resign immediately,' Jaitley said.
The Wikileaks diplomatic cables published by The Hindu newspaper quoted a political aide of Congress leader Satish Sharma as saying that a fund of Rs.50 crore had been formed to pay MPs for the confidence vote.
A US embassy official was apparently shown two chests of cash in the political aide's house, kept for the payoffs.