Opposition demands PM's resignation

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13. The Opposition parties today demanded the Prime Minister's resignation in the wake of ``revelations'' made by an online news website, Tehelka, on corruption in a defence deal, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Mr. Bangaru Laxman, caught on camera, could not but confirm that he had accepted Rs. one lakh ``for the party.''

Mr. Laxman's immediate reaction was that his ``conscience is clear''and there was no question of his resignation, but later tonight he put in his resignation papers, apparently prompted by the Prime Minister.

It was perhaps the most elating day for the Opposition since the NDA government came to power, and it was also the most embarrassing day for the BJP and its partners like the Samata Party. The BJP, in fact, maintained a sphinx-like silence on the allegation of corruption in the defence deal. The party vice- president, Mr. Jana Krishnamurthi, and spokesperson, Mr. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said they had not yet seen the tape, although it had been televised throughout the day on the Zee channel. Instead, they defended Mr. Laxman on the ground that he was only taking money for the party - a line which brought to mind a similar plea during the Jain `hawala' days when Mr. Sharad Yadav went on television to say he was being honest by admitting that he had taken the money to fight elections, as all politicians do, and indeed must do.

However, all this was before Mr. Vajpayee sent for Mr. Laxman. After the meeting, Mr. Laxman announced that he was resigning, but he would clear his name later.

The Samata Party camp was at the centre of the `revelation' story as its president, Ms. Jaya Jaitly, was ``heard'' on tape negotiating and directing how the deal was to be done and how the ``boss,'' Mr. George Fernandes, wanted it done.

Cong. bays for PM's head

The Opposition charge was led by the Congress and the Left. In three separate statements, they demanded the immediate resignation of the Prime Minister, whose position, they said had been severely compromised, and who had lost all moral right to continue in office.

The deputy leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Mr. Madhavrao Scindia, said ``the matter concerns national security, we want an explanation from the Government on what seems to be irrefutable evidence, if the Government cannot refute these allegations it has no moral right to continue.'' The party spokesperson, Mr. Jaipal Reddy, was equally unsparing: ``it is not individual Ministers or officials, it is the Prime Minister who is accountable for all this.''

The opposition clearly sees this ``bombshell'' as holding all potential of a huge scandal that could expose the NDA Government. ``In the history of this country, we have never had such explosive evidence of corruption, it is equivalent to Pokhran 3,'' said Mr. Reddy, adding: ``it's not just money that changed hands. India's national security has been severely compromised.``

The CPI (M) Politburo saw in the scandal a confirmation of its worst apprehensions about the deep and widespread corruption in the government. The CPI Central Secretariat said Mr. Vajpayee had lost his moral right to govern after the revelations and allegations of corruption against the BJP chief and politicians belonging to the NDA. ``Compared to this, the Bofors scandal appears to be a minor episode,'' said the CPI(M).

Laxman sees conspiracy

As the scandal broke out, reporters made a beeline for the residence of Mr. Bangaru Laxman who described the affair as ``politically motivated'' and a ``political conspiracy'' not only against the BJP, but against his position in the party because he was a dalit. Some people came, not defence dealers but traders, they wanted to donate money to the party, he accepted it. QED. What was the big noise about?

As for Mr Krishnamurthi, he drew a distinction between the alleged defence scandal and Mr. Laxman's role as shown in the tapes. There was nothing to connect Mr. Laxman with the alleged scandal, he only took money for the party, What the party felt was that the entire show had been meticulously planned and therefore taped, and this established that it was part of a political conspiracy. What the party was not able to explain is why officials and others said what they did, even if their rivals had planned a conspiracy.

Mr. Laxman had himself hinted that his `dalit' status could be a factor that made some plan to dethrone him, and there were some politicians who felt that there could also be other factors internal to the BJP that may be behind this `revelation.' After all, Mr. J.K.Jain, the expelled national executive member, has been shouting about a mother of all scandals for the last several months.

PTI,UNI report:

The Samata Party said it never provided or discussed any defence deal nor interfered in any aspect of the work of the Defence Ministry. ``Any claims made by anyone to the contrary is complete falsehood,'' the party general secretary and spokesman Mr. Shambhu Srivastava said in a statement.

PM must quit: Laloo

The Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, demanded Mr. Vajpayee's resignation and congratulated Tehelka.Com for ``exposing the murky deal.'' He said Mr. Fernandes, Mr. Laxman and Ms. Jaitly should be arrested. Every

thing had been captured on camera and now these people could not deny their involvement in the case. Mr. Vajpayee should apologise in public, he said and added that there was no need to probe the matter as the truth had been unravelled.

He threatened to launch a countrywide protest against the ``corrupt practices'' of the NDA leaders if Mr. Vajpayee did not resign by tomorrow evening.

Thackeray wants probe

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena supremo, Mr. Bal Thackeray, said Mr. Vajpayee should not resign, but instead order a probe into the matter. He thanked Mr. Laxman for showing grace in resigning as party chief.

Baseless, says Brigadier

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13. A serving Brigadier named by the portal dismissed the allegation as absolutely baseless and said he would take ``appropriate action'' against the Dotcom company.

Another senior officer named by the portal said he would react later.

While Tehelka had named a national trustee of the RSS in its expose, the RSS itself said there was no question of the existence of a national trustee as the organisation was not a Trust.

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