After a long time, JD(U) leader George Fernandes is back in the centre of a controversy. And as the Treasury benches paralysed the Lok Sabha and demanded his arrest for an inciting terrorists against the head of the Government on Friday, the former Defence Minister watched with interest. The Rajya Sabha, too, witnessed noisy scenes leading to an adjournment.Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said in the Lok Sabha, “It is an incitement to terrorists and extremists and a grave provocation.” The former Defence Minister, according to him, should either withdraw his statement or tender an apology. He said if he was not mentally sound, “then we have nothing to say”. However, “if he is, then the Government condemns the statement”. He also called upon Leader of the Opposition L K Advani to condemn the statement.The Speaker observed that he could not compel a member to tender an apology because the statement had been made outside the House. However, it was unbecoming of a member to have made such a remark against the highest dignitary of the country who should be properly respected. He said the House and the country should decide the matter in view of Fernandes’ silence.Unfazed by criticism, Fernandes wrote to Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to deny the ruling party charge that his was an inciting statement. “No one reading my statement in its entirety including the Prime Minister himself will come to such a conclusion,” he claimed. Fernandes said those seeking his apology for having hurt the Prime Minister’s honour had made a “good point,” but he too had been the victim of a campaign “filled with lies” while serving as the Defence Minister. “For two years, every time I entered the House she (Sonia Gandhi) incited her shouting brigade to shout against me: Kafan chor kursi chhod.” He said, “She knew she was lying, but she carried on with those lies and now the same people are talking about their honour. Other than the NDA and the Samajwadi Party members there was not a member of the House to save my honour at that time.”In the Rajya Sabha, Congress member Pravin Rashtrapal raised the issue after Question Hour. Party colleague Shantaram Naik asked Home Minister Shivraj Patil to get an FIR registered against Fernandes. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri said the House should condemn the former Defence Minister.While refusing to condemn Fernandes’ remarks, BJP deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj told reporters later that everyone had his own style of putting things. Reacting to this, Dasmunsi said: “It only proves that there is no distinction between those who like to kill people and those who express such views”.
