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Former defence minister George Fernandes Saturday said middlemen who had lost access to the ministry were behind the Tehelka expose as part of efforts to destabilise the government saying the losers wanted to portray the ministry as a "den of corruption".
"I believe that those middlemen who had lost their access to the defence ministry consequent upon decisions I had taken and were unable to manipulate our defence purchase chose to get this thing done."
"And for the last eight months they have been at it and it is not as simple as made out," he told reporters, two days after he resigned in the wake of the expose.
He said his resignation was rooted in "my concern for nation's security because in the last few days they have been exploited by highly-motivated people who want to create an atmosphere that the ministry of defence is a den of corruption and that everyone including uniformed personnel are painted with one brush."
The Samata Party leader said if anyone of those behind the website was really concerned about national security, they should not have taken this road. "They should have met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and told him the state of affairs and the need for an investigation," he said.
The manner in which it was done "had objectives that were not wholly honourable and it would demoralise the defence forces and create doubts in the minds of the people about national security".
"And worse it would make a dent in the morale of our troops manning our frontiers... and it is this that made me put in my papers," he said.
Fernandes said the image of NDA was not damaged by the expose as "it was a concerted effort to destabilise the government".
On the entire episode, he said, "If there is something called media then it should be all about truth and facts and not subjective opinion of individuals who are writing the report. I feel journalism is based on the dictum, facts are sacred, comments are free."
On his party colleagues Nitish Kumar, Digvijay Singh and Srinivasa Prasad too pressing for their resignations from the Vajpayee government, he said, "They are doing it out of sentiment, respect and concern. I still believe and continue to believe that they should not pursue this step."
He said he has been consistently persuading his colleagues not to resign after they came to know of his putting in his papers.
Fernandes said he told them "my ministry is under attack but they didn't accept it" and said "we would like to leave".
"Till 4 am Thursday I pleaded with my colleagues but they refused and on Friday too, I had tried to persuade them at the NDA meeting. But, they somehow didn't respond", he said.
PTI
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