Former defence minister George Fernandes said today that then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had actually stopped him from looking into the Bofors files when he once met him with the documents on the Bofors purchase.

In an interview to television channel IBN7 in Dharamshala, Fernandes who is also NDA convener, even though mostly in a notional sense, said that when he met Vajpayee with the papers he was told “not to touch” the Bofors file even though his intention was not to ferret out more details on the Bofors scam.

The meeting apparently took place after the Kargil war in 1999, and according to the former defence minister, he only wanted to find out more about the gun and read the agreement on the purchase because it had performed well in Kargil.

During the brief interview aired on the channel, Fernandes said: “I don’t know why he said so (not to look into the papers).”

The statement embarrasses the BJP which has made the current Quattrocchi extradition and the Government’s delay in announcing it a political issue. But within the BJP there were already views about why the former defence minister had chosen to go public over the issue.

His near-complete isolation within his own party, the JD (U), his marginalization in the NDA, and his proximity to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav despite the NDA’s stand against him, are being cited as reasons for his revelation. Fernandes is believed to be looking for an opportunity to find his own place in the political mainstream.

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