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Journalism of Courage
Fifty-four MPs from the UPA have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to order a CBI inquiry into former Defence Minister George Fernandes8217; links with the multi-core stamp paper scamsters Abdul Karim Telgi and Anil Gote.
This is being seen as a counter-offensive by the UPA, led by the RJD, to the offensive mounted by the NDA against 8220;tainted8221; ministers.
With battlelines drawn, several ministers are ferreting out information about the acts of commission and omission of their predecessors. 8216;8216;If that is the way they want to play the game, and they are behaving very undemocratically, then let it be a no-holds barred fight,8217;8217; said a senior minister in UPA.
In their missive to the PM, the 54 MPs 8212; belonging to the CPI, CPIM, RJD, NCP, Congress, RSP, Forward Block 8212; has said that Fernandes attended three functions at the invitation of the Kisan Trust headed by Gote of which Telgi was a trustee, on November 11, 1997, July 3, 1999 and on May 16, 2003. This was despite the fact that Telgi had been declared an absconder in 1995 itself. What8217;s more, the letter said, Telgi had given Gote8217;s home address as his own in the Kisan Trust deed.
Rejecting Fernandes8217; explanation in Parliament earlier this month that he did not know either Telgi or Gote, the signatories have requested the PM to hand over the matter to the CBI. Fernandes had said he had gone to Dhule to visit Kargil martyr Suryavanshi8217;s home, but RJD sources said their enquiries had revealed that the former Defence Minister had not visited his house.
