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New Delhi: Nearly a week after the trust vote debate in parliament was interrupted by allegations of bribery, there is a growing clamour for tapes of the television sting to be made public.
And even as the CNN-IBN on Monday defended its decision not to air the video on July 22 claiming that the tapes were "inconclusive and of poor quality", scepticism is beginning to set in about the news channel's motive for playing up the cash-for-vote scam.
For now, the channel says it is awaiting Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee's verdict since the tapes are with him.
"We have taken a purely journalistic call. We could not telecast it at that stage as we felt the tapes were inconclusive," channel head Rajdeep Sardesai said yesterday.
"A full-fledged parliamentary inquiry is on. We have handed over the unedited tapes to the Speaker and we will go by what he says," he said.
Asked about the propriety of keeping the tapes from the public eye, veteran journalist Kuldip Nayar said: "It should be shown in full; otherwise, it would be assumed that the channel is under duress... Either the sting should not have been done. Now the ball is in the public court. People have the right to know what's in the tapes."
Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani has written to Chatterjee that the tapes be made public. Any delay on this count, he said, would give rise to "grave doubts whether they are authentic or doctored".
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