Mr Prime Minister, the Defence Minister has to go

Mr Prime Minister, the Defence Minister has to go

New Delhi, March 14: It’s a good question: why should George Fernandes have to go? He has not been caught taking a bribe. Nor has he, or his party president Jaya Jaitly been filmed fixing a defence deal. All political parties collect money. They never particularly bother where it comes from. That she stooped so low as to take Rs 2 lakh (a mere $4,340 as the amused American press noted) actually underlines how clean the Raksha Mantri's party is. If it were corrupt, it would be collecting crores and leaving a few lakhs here and there in tips and gratuities.

So far, so good. But what does Jaitly offer in return for this piffling tribute? A meeting with the Raksha Mantri of India. Also, a word to the ``sahib's'' office in case ``your product'' is ``not even being considered.'' Now, wait a minute. Defence Minister of India, you said? Is India a banana republic? Or a nuclear weapons state with super-power ambitions? With the fifth largest army, the fourth largest airforce and a growing blue water navy at its command. Also, a country with threats from both its large neighbours, and so many insurgencies within. You can buy the attentions of the man who presides over all this for a mere Rs 2 lakh. That is the other way of looking at Jaitly's piffling tribute and the NDA's ``so what's wrong with this, everybody takes political donations...'' defence.

Or you can look at it differently still. Forget the two lakhs. This is the living room of the Raksha Mantri's official residence. So many shady arms merchants (one of them, even a fake) walk in with hidden spy cameras. Forget what they talk about, pay, or seek in return. Can you really trust the defence of your nation, with so many threats, such massive armed forces, a Rs 70,000-crore defence budget and nuclear weapons with a man, or even a system that is so porous, so promiscuous, so pernicious? Nobody checked their credentials. Nobody even ensured they were actually not ISI agents. Or, maybe, the ISI will now take its cue. Don't waste time and precious lives launching suicide attacks on army camps in the Valley. Just send agents with spy cameras, and bags loaded with dollars, in millions, to the houses of central ministers, their party leaders and buy their attention and more. Better still, catch them in the act on camera and blackmail them for the rest of their lives.

Howsoever you rationalise this, there is a problem for Messrs Fernandes and Vajpayee. Yes, the government is offering a full and impartial inquiry into the mess in the defence establishment. Who will take that seriously when it continues to be presided over by the very person in the dock? Peter Mandelson, in Britain, by the way, had to go for so small a crime as making a phone call to check on the Hindujas' citizenship application.

So, here is Vajpayee's real problem: He has no defence for his defence minister. No excuse to waffle, wait, vacillate. The longer he takes doing the inevitable, the greater the damage he will do to his own, and his government's credibility. Over the years, India's voters have learnt to keep lowering the bar each time a political scandal breaks. Politicians are like that, we shrug and say. But can we be so sanguine when our top defence establishment is reduced to a vulgar joke like this?

Fernandes's defence will obviously convince his NDA partners. But will it really comfort the honest among the army's top brass? Or the lonely sentry on the line of control? There comes a time in every leader's life when he has to choose between realpolitik and statesmanship. On form, you really cannot expect a George Fernandes to do so. But if even a Vajpayee does not have the courage to give his countrymen -- what he owes them in the very least -- we must live in extremely perilous times.