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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
The Chief Executive Officer of tehelka.com, Tarun Tejpal, has reacted sharply to the return of George Fernandes to the Union cabinet, saying if the government is not serious in getting to the bottom of the defence scam, it should wind up the Venkataswami Commission.
"What can I say on a matter like this. This is not just my battle, but the battle of the entire media. The man who resigned on high moral grounds has become desperate to come back to the cabinet. If this is the way the government wants Justice K Venktaswami Commission to hold an inquiry, then it would be better to wind up the commission altogether," Tejpal told rediff.com minutes after George Fernandes was administered the oath of office and secrecy.
George Fernandes had resigned from the office of the defence minister after the tehelka.com released tapes showing his party colleague and former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly talking to tehelka journalists, who had introduced themselves as defence contractors interested in selling equipment to the Indian army.
Fernandes, while resigning from his post had said that he would return to the cabinet only after Venkataswami Commission cleared his name.
The commission is still in the process of probing the allegations levelled by tehelka against several politicians and army officers, of accepting bribes for approving defence contracts.
"If George Fernandes has been brought back then why take action against the army officers and all those officials who had accepted bribes from the tehelka reporters?" a livid Tejpal questioned.
He wondered what would be the fate of the commission set up by the government. The commission has sought another extension, as its present term comes to an end on November 24.
"We were happy that the commission in its verdict had given a clean chit to tehelka.com, and declared that it had not tampered with the tapes. Stung by the commission's verdict the government decided to go ahead with expansion and reinduct Fernandes back into the cabinet. Instead of going after the guilty the government is going after the media that had exposed the corruption in defence deals," he argued.
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