Feet of clay, Govt digs heels in
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: Tarnished by the images of the Tehelka tapes and under pressure from an increasingly belligerent Opposition which stalled both Houses of Parliament today, the Vajpayee Government seems to have decided to brazen it out and come to the defence of beleagured Defence Minister George Fernandes.

That’s why despite NDA ally Mamata Bannerjee’s joining the Opposition in demanding the resignation of Fernandes, the other NDA partnerswith the exception of Ramakrishna Hegde’s JD (U)after a meeting this evening announced total support to Fernandes and dismissed her demand out of hand. ‘‘There is no need for Fernandes to step down as there is nothing incriminating in the tapes against him personally,’’ NDA spokesman and DMK’s Murasoli Maran said.

It was clear that Fernandes had dug in his heels even though the government maintained the fiction that he had offered his resignation but Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had turned it down. The Samata Party in fact seems to have decided to weather the storm and warned that any action against Fernandes would mean that the party would quit the NDA.

Party president Jaya Jaitly who had disappeared from public view yesterday, re-emerged from her hideout to adopt the attitude that she did not have to resign since her collection of funds was for the party, not for herself.

The Vajpayee government has no option but to back Fernandes even though it realises that in the bargain its moral high ground has been severely eroded. The BJP is not just constrained by the fact that it can ill afford to alienate an important ally. The party managers are also conscious that if Fernandes were to step down, the next target of attack would be the Prime Minister’s principal secretary Brajesh Mishra and the Prime Minister himself. By staying on, Fernandes provides a buffer for direct attack on the Prime Minister.

In fact some cynics feel that Bangaru Laxman, handpicked by Vajpayee for his post, was removed so speedily partly because of his aspersions on the PMO and the Prime Minister’s foster son in the Tehelka tapes and not just because he was caught accepting money.

The government is banking on riding out the political crisis by refusing to crumble and present a divided front before the Opposition’s onslaught. The government’s strategy will be to deplore corrpution in the Defence Ministry and call for an inquiry such as a joint parliamentary commitee probe. But at the same time it will pinpoint numerous holes in the Tehelka tapes, which cast doubts upon their credibility.

It appears that the two party middlemen quoted by the tapes did not have either the knowledge or authority to make some of the sweeping claims about deals about which they boasted to Tehelka correspondents.

However, one reason why the government is treading cautiously in i’s rebuttal is that it is not aware what other dirt the dotcom comapny has up its sleeve. At this evening’s NDA meeting, a suggestion that Fernandes appear on television to defend himself was turned down.

While the release of the tapes has proved an incentive for bringing together the near moribund Third Front, the Congress, which has the most to gain in the long-term from the scandal, has yet to devise a clear-cut strategy how to take on the government. The Congress is hamstrung by the fact that it’s not in a position to offer a viable alternative government at this point. It is hoping that the inherent contradictions in the shaky coalition will come to the fore and the government will topple on its own forcing a fresh election.

But today’s meeting of the NDA indicated that such an assumption may be premature. There was near solidalrity at the wisdom of backing Fernandes. While Samata party members said they would quit the NDA if Fernandes resigned, some indicated that they would expect their own party to take action against Jaya at a later point.