'Expose on defence deal' puts NDA Govt. in a spot

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13. The BJP president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, resigned tonight after he was shown accepting large wads of currency from a fake ``defence manufacturer''. Mr. Laxman was caught with a ``smoking gun'' by the investigative team of an on- line website, Tehelka.com, in a story ``of how the suitcase people are compromising Indian defence''.

The Tehelka revelations have created a first rate political crisis for the NDA Government, and Mr. Laxman became the first victim. Nor is it likely to be the only one. A reluctant BJP president was reportedly asked to meet the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, late this evening, and was persuaded to step down, much against his own inclination.

The Union Cabinet which met this evening for its weekly meeting had to put aside the scheduled business, and, instead, took note of the political fall-out of the explosive Tehelka exposure. The senior officials, who otherwise customarily attend Cabinet meetings, were asked to leave and the political principals are understood to have evaluated how to counter the embarrassing disclosures of dirty deals and dirty money in defence purchases, that too in an establishment that wears its probity and its patriotism on its sleeve.

Mindful that the Opposition would be raising Cain in Parliament tomorrow, the Union Cabinet, in a statement, noted: The attention of the Government has been drawn to the Tehelka tape. The Government is ready and willing for a thorough debate in Parliament and an inquiry, if necessary. The Government has nothing to hide. The guilty will not be spared, no innocent reputation will be allowed to be tarnished.''

`Govt. must fight it out'

Though the Government media managers tried to suggest that the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, too has offered to resign, it is learnt that in the Cabinet discussion, Mr. Fernandes was most vociferous in arguing that the Government should fight it out. The two Houses of Parliament are likely to witness heated moments, with the leading Opposition party, the Congress, feeling that it has now got its ``Bofors'' against the NDA Government.

The revelations were presented by the website at a press conference, narrating a telling tale of how defence middlemen, political operators, politicians and officials went about accepting money from ``a fictitious arms manufacturing company, based in London.''

`34 persons accepted money'

As many as 34 individuals accepted money from the purported representative of the fictitious company, called West End. The company presented itself wanting to peddle non-existent ``ostensibly fourth generation hand-held thermal cameras'' to the defence establishment.

The overall impression the Tehelka revelations create is to document how the corrupt ways of defence purchases have become institutionalised. To the extent no product was sold or purchased, there can be no allegation of actual corruption; but, the whole ``Operation West End'' adds up to a massive stink.

The ruling establishment finds itself in a politically embarrassing corner. In particular, two leading lights of the NDA - Mr. Bangaru Laxman and Ms. Jaya Jaitly, Samata Party president, - have been shown to be ``on the take''. The website has presented video images of the two accepting money from the West End; Mr. Laxman at his residence on January 5, 2001, and Ms. Jaitly at the residence of the Defence Minister on December 28, 2000.

It is an unseemly sight of the BJP president personally accepting wads of currency notes. About Ms. Jaitly, this is what the website transcript notes: ``After hearing a lot of talk about R.K. Jain, treasurer of the Samata Party, being the briefcase man of George Fernandes we at West End decided that a direct approach was called for. The series of meetings with R.K. Jain proved to be a goldmine of information about past and present defence deals. It incriminates beyond redemption Defence Minister George Fernandes and the Samata Party.''

The Tehelka has managed to deprive the BJP and the Sangh Parivar of their pretensions of being above corruption. Mr. R.K. Jain is shown to be educating the Samata leadership how money could be made for the party in defence deals; at one point, Mr. Jain revealed that Ms. Jaitly insisted on a three per cent rather than a two per cent commission on a Rs. 600-crore defence deal.

On the other hand, Mr. Raj Kumar Gupta, who is identified as defence middleman and as a national trustee of the RSS, is shown to be entirely indifferent to the ethical issues.

The Tehelka transcript has this to say about Mr. Gupta: ``Within the RSS, Gupta is known as a `super' trustee. His proximity with both Prime Minister Vajpayee and L.K. Advani is lore. Both have been tenants at his properties. He has also helped establish the RSS headquarters at Jhandewalan, Delhi in 1967.''

Curiously enough a boastful Mr. R.K. Gupta ends up giving a clean chit to the Prime Minister, and daringly suggests that ``the Prime Minister has no guts to say he should be given, not the party.'' And, then, he goes on to add that even Mr. Ranjan Bhattacharya, Mr. Vajpayee's foster son-in-law, would not interfere. ``And Ranjan knows my strength in the party. The RSS.''

The various purported middlemen bandy about names such as Mr. Brajesh Mishra, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, Mr. Hiren Pathak, the then Minister of State for Defence. The Tehelka camera has on camera a number of serving and retired Army officials and Defence Ministry officials.

The following make an appearance on the camera: Brig. Anil Sehgal, Director, Directorate-General of Ordnance and Supply (DGOS); Mr. Sashi Menon, Senior Section Officer (DGOS), Ministry of Defence; Lt. Col. Sharma, In-Charge, Procurement Air Head Quarters; Brig. Iqbal Singh, Prospective Procurement Office (PPO); Lt. Col. Sayal, retd., defence middleman; Maj. Gen. P.S.K. Chaoudhary, Additional Director-General, Weapons and Equipment; Maj. Gen. Manjit Singh Ahluwalia, Director-General of DGOS; Maj. Gen. S.P. Murgai, retd., Additional Director-General, Quality Assurance; Dr. Ketan Shukla, IFS office, former PS to former Minister of State for Defence; Mr. Narendra Singh, Additional Financial Adviser, Ministry of Defence; Mr. H.C. Pant, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Mr. Deepak Gupta, defence middleman and industrialist; Mr. Rakesh Nigam, freelance Liaisoning Officer; Mr. R.K. Gupta, defence middle man and national trustee, RSS; Lt. Col. Berry (retd), defence middleman; Maj. S.j. Singh (retd), defence middleman; Maj. Gen. Satnam Singh, Director General of Operations, Drass, Kargil Sector; Mr. R.K. Jain, defence middleman and national treasurer, Samata Party; Mr. Raju Venkatesh, personal secretary to Mr. Bangaru Laxman; Mr. Sathyamurthy, private secretary to Mr. Laxman; Mr. Bangaru Laxman; Mr. Surendra Singh Sulekha, industrialist from Kanpur; Mr. Jaya Jaitly; Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister; Mr. Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas; and, Mr. L.M. Mehta, IAS Additional Defence Secretary.

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