Sabrang Elections 2004: FACTSHEETS Scamnama: The unending saga of NDA’s scams – Armsgate, Coffinsgate, Customscam, Stockscam, Telecom, Pumpscam… Scandalsheet 2: Armsgate (Tehelka) __________________________________________________________________ ‘Zero tolerance of corruption’. -- Prime Minister Vajpayee’s call to the nation On October 16, 1999. __________________________________________________________________ March 13, 2001: · Tehelka.com breaks a story that stuns the nation and the world. Tehelka investigators had captured on spy camera the president of the BJP, Bangaru Laxman, the Samata Party president, Jaya Jaitly (described as the ‘Second Defence Minister’ by one of the middlemen interviewed on videotape), and several top Defence Ministry officials accepting money, or showing willingness to accept money for defence deals. · This they had managed to do through a sting operation named Operation West End, posing as representatives of a fictitious UK based arms manufacturing firm. · Tehelka claims it paid out Rs. 10,80,000 in bribes to a cast of 34 characters. · Among the shots forming part of the four-and-a-half hour documentary are those of Bangaru Laxman accepting one lakh and asking for the promised five lakhs in dollars! He did not deny accepting the money. Bangaru Laxman resigns as BJP president. · Even before screening of the tapes at a press conference at a leading hotel here was over, the issue rocked both Houses of Parliament forcing their adjournment with the opposition demanding an immediate government statement on the issue. · The Union government says it is prepared for an inquiry into the tehelka.com expose of the alleged involvement of top politicians and government officials in corrupt defence deals. At an emergency Union Cabinet meeting George Fernandes reportedly offers to resign but the offer is rejected by the Prime Minister. 1 March 14: · Jana Krishnamurthi appointed BJP’s acting president. · The Congress says it would accept nothing less than the resignation of the BJP-led NDA government as “the future of the nation is not safe in the hands of a government which is so ridden with corruption that the security of the nation is jeopardised.” Jaipal Reddy: “Today the NDA government is a stinking symbol of sleaze, sleaze and sleaze.” Other Opposition parties join the resignation demand. March 15: · Army appoints a court of inquiry. · George Fernandes resigns from the Vajpayee Government. · Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Ms. Mamata Banerjee, quits the Ministry and withdraws her party's support to the National Democratic Alliance Government. · Ms. Jaya Jaitly, steps down from the presidentship of the Samata Party. · “The Tehelka expose only confirms and vindicates our initial findings”. -- N Vittal, Central Vigilance Commissioner. · Editorial in The Asian Age (March 15): “The exposé only confirms the reports carried by The Asian Age for nearly two years now suggesting large-scale corruption in all matters related to defence”. · Editorial in the pro-BJP Pioneer (March 15): “The BJP has, in one stroke, forfeited the right to call itself a ‘party with a difference’. Having campaigned consistently against corruption in high places for so many years, it will be impossible for the party to live down the shocking visual of its own president accepting wads of currency notes”. · Editorial in the Hindustan Times (March 15):The investigating agencies need to pick up and question R.K. Gupta, the man who claims to have built the RSS’ headquarters for free. Mr Gupta seems — judging by the Tehelka videotapes — to have so much clout that he says that he can over-rule top officials in the PMO because he collects money for the RSS and nobody dare dispute his authority. Mr Gupta’s boasts make a mockery of the RSS’ claims to be a clean organisation. · Mathew Samuel, one of the two tehelka.com reporters behind Operation West End, says he is facing threat to life for taking on the bigwigs. Mathew said his wife too had been subjected to threats. An employee in a private firm, she was chased by men who threatened her with dire consequences. When such threats continued, her employer asked her to resign. 2 March 16: GROUPS WITHIN the NDA and the BJP hammer out a quid pro quo solution to face the Tehelka videotape crisis. George Fernandes retains his position as the convenor of the NDA a day after he resigned as Defence Minister and his party dropps the demand for changes in the Prime Minister's Office. March 17: · Govt announces the appointment of a one-man commission of inquiry, preferably headed by a sitting Supreme Court judge, to probe the Tehelka disclosures and submit its report in four months. · The RSS issues a certificate of “truth” to the contents of the Tehelka tapes and asks the government to clean up the administration. Its stamp of sanctity on the revelations stands in sharp contrast to tales of conspiracy floated by the government. · Vajpayee convenes a meeting of coalition partners who expressed “full faith” in George Fernandes and approve his “reappointment” as convener of the National Democratic Alliance. This is aimed at placating Fernandes as well as other ministers of the Samata Party who resigned after he quit as defence minister yesterday. · Article in The Asian Age: One is happy to see that the same newspapers today are writing front page editorials asking for Georgie boy's resignation. Obviously even the worms have turned. It is the desh bhakhts who are selling the country out. It is the desh bhakts, who claim to represent the national interest, who have been selling our national security for any price. · I have this gut feeling that while the army to take to task its tainted officers in the severest manner, civilians and politicians will go scot-free. -- Lt Gen Kandeth, who joined the BJP in 1991, March 17, 2001, Indian Express. · Tehelka’s CEO claims at a press conference his team is being threatened by PMO officials. March 18: · The External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, has been appointed the country's new Defence Minister in place of Mr. George Fernandes who resigned on account of the tehelka.com “expose''. · Article in The Hindustan Times: “For the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), that took great pride in projecting itself as the party with a difference, the damage may be irreparable. The cadres of the party which took pride in describing it as the flag-bearer of patriotism and nationalism may now find it difficult to explain to their supporters why and how their president 3 Mr Bangaru Laxman took rupees one lakh from two correspondents posing as arms dealers”. March 19: Editorial in the Indian Express: “The defence minister's house that has been reduced to a political boudoir… If a couple of amateur reporters could expose this, can you imagine what our favourite bogeymen from the ISI and the CIA could do?” March 22: The Defence Ministry appoints a one- man fact-finding committee to probe the conduct of its officials whose names had figured in the Tehelka expose on arms deals. A court of inquiry is already conducting a formal probe in accordance with the Army Act. Headed by RP Bagai, Joint Secretary and Chief Vigilance Officer of the Ministry, the probe committee has been directed by the new Defence Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh, to complete the job and submit a report within a month. The committee will look into the transactions relating to procurement of armaments, weapons systems and stores referred to in the Tehelka tapes and transcript in order to ascertain whether the prescribed procedure had been followed. March 23: Editorial in The Hindustan Times: “Equally sad is the manner in which Sushma Swaraj has skirted round the truth about Prasar Bharati's supposed autonomy when Sonia Gandhi wanted time on Doordarshan to respond to George Fernandes' 'clarifications'… After having first made the mistake of allowing the former defence minister present his case (against an exposé which the DD blacked out!), it is strange for a government to refuse to allow someone to make a reply”. March 24: · The Central government appoints the K Venkataswami Commission to inquire into the Tehelka scam. · AIADMK members burn effigies of George Fernandes and Bangaru Laxman in Bangalore in protest aganst the duo’s alleged involvement in the Tehelka exposed scam. (Source: Deccan Herald) March 26: A news report: A deeply aggrieved and emotionally charged Vajpayee at BJP national executive meet: Even if it was a trap, why did we walk into it. If the individual concerned had acted in a responsible manner and didn’t commit the wrong then I wouldn’t have heard what was unthinkable till the other day. The Opposition had shouted ‘chor, chor’ when I used to enter the House 4 in Parliament. The images that are being shown on TV would have long and lasting effect on public memory. The wound is too deep to be taken lightly.” October 12: In a significant development, the K Venkataswami Commission declares the tehelka tapes on alleged corruption in defence deals to be genuine saying "no prima-facie case about doctoring has been made out at all." Rejecting a plea to send the tehelka tapes to experts, Justice K Venkataswami said: "It is inappropriate at this juncture to refer the unedited tapes in the custody of the commission to a panel of experts." Taking exception to Government's stand, which had not asked for checking of veracity of tehelka tapes on its own but had pointed that since the matter was raised by other parties, the "clouds of doubt" should be removed, Justice Venkataswami said: "It is curious especially considering that it had proceeded with inquiries of the defence personnel and others based on these very tapes themselves". November 28: Tehelka shareholder facing harassment, says Tejpal The Editor-in-Chief of the Tehelka portal, Mr.