Left accuses Jaswant of joining ‘cover-up’

Left accuses Jaswant of joining ‘cover-up’
SANTWANA BHATTACHARYA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 25: Maintaining its tirade against the Vajpayee Government, Left parties on Saturday accused Jaswant Singh of extending the ‘‘BJP’s well-thought out cover-up operation’’ over the Tehelka tapes to the defence ministry. ‘‘Jaswant Singh’s decision to appoint a one-man inquiry to go into the Tehelka exposure right after he took charge of the defence ministry, is both suspect and objectionable,’’ CPI(M) leaders said.

Ridiculing the move as ‘‘easily manipulable one-man farcical inquiry’’, the CPI (M) and CPI leaders said it would also obfuscate matters. But as the Sangh Parivar seemed to close ranks to defend the Government, the Opposition seems divided in its attack on the Government.

Even the two main Left parties picked on two different aspects of the Tehelka expose crisis to beat the government, though they had earlier been united in their attack against the defence establishment.

The CPI(M) questioned as to why only four officials, including a Major General and three civilian officials, were suspended, and others were not touched. ‘‘We want to know why none of the other officers who took money as seen in the tapes were suspended,’’ one of the Politburo members said, demanding that cases be lodged against all other persons involved.

The CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan asked: ‘‘Why is the Naval chief (Admiral Sushil Kumar) giving a clean chit to former defence minister George Fernandes? Who has given him the authority to make public statements defending a tainted former minister?’’ Though the vitriolic attack on the Government continued, the fissures within the Opposition front became more evident. The move by a section of the Congress top brass to set up a meeting with Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee for an alliance in the West Bengal polls seemed to totally cancel out chances of a broader Opposition tie-up at the Centre.

However, talk of toppling the Vajpayee Government on moral grounds continued. ‘‘It is the moral issue which has ramifications on the country’s security,’’ Bardhan said.