AIADMK hints at role of PM's ex-aide
Jaya's rejoinder to letter

CHENNAI, Aug 19 (PTI) — The AIADMK supremo, Ms Jayalalitha, today hit back at Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asserting that he had himself made "serious allegations" against the newspaper group which she had accused of having paid "hefty bribe" to persons close to him for the transfer of Enforcement Director M.K. Bezbaruah.

Pulling a "protocol punch" she had AIADMK party office secretary P. Mahalingam reply to the letter by Mr Vajpayee’s Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra, asking her to substantiate the bribery charge.

Mr Mahalingam in his letter, copies of which was released to the press here, said Mr Vajpayee’s letter written to the then Prime Minister Mr I.K. Gujral, levelling "serious allegations" against the newspaper group could be procured from the files in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Mr Vajpayee had "good reason" then to write such a letter as Ms Jayalalitha had now done, Mr Mahalingam said in his letter, a copy of which was released to the press.

He alleged that senior personnel of the group had frequent interactions with a person who, till recently, was part of the PMO. "Such close interaction with those facing serious charges which are under investigation naturally leads to adverse inferences," he said.

Significantly, Ms Jayalalitha chose a person who was not even a party office-bearer to reply to Mr Mishra’s letter.

Mr Mahalingam said: "What is worse is that an individual very close to the Prime Minister has had meetings with the group’s Corporate Director. Many of the discussions with both these individuals related to cases against the group".

He told Mr Mishra that he could independently confirm the frequent contacts the two had with those close to the group and advise them against doing so.

"The group has openly been lobbying both for and against selected officers, including Mr Bezbaruah, representatives of the group have several times met with present and former ministers and senior civil servants for discussions about their cases, including many meetings with the then Revenue Secretary. "I do not want to name the present ministers who have been in close contact with them as this will be revealed in an inquiry, should one be ordered’, he said.

The Prime Minister would not have forgotten his own letter and statement, nor would he fail to realise the gravity of repeated contacts with the group under investigation for serious offences, he said.

Mr Mahalingam demanded a full CBI inquiry into the "furious lobbying" that preceded the transfer of Mr Bezbaruah.

Meanwhile, Union Law Minister and AIADMK leader M. Thambi Durai has asserted that the PMK and MDMK, besides other members of the AIADMK front in Tamil Nadu, will abide by Ms Jayalalitha’s decision on the issue of support to the BJP-led government.

Meanwhile, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy today claimed the Supreme Court’s observation yesterday that the transfer of Enforcement Director Bezbaruah was "very, very distressing" vindicated AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha’s stand that persons close to the Prime Minister were bribed to get him transferred.

Referring to Mr Karunanidhi’s statement in an interview yesterday that he favoured the United Front deciding on the issue of backing the Vajpayee government, he said if the AIADMK pulled out, anyone who lent support would stand discredited in the eyes of the minorities.

He said now that the Supreme Court had directed the government to file an affidavit on the ED chief's transfer on September 8, the Prime Minister had better order a CBI probe.

If the government failed to do so, he would request the Supreme Court to order a probe at the next hearing of the PIL, he added.

TNS adds: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday took exception to the AIADMK charge that a person who was in the Prime Minister’s Office till recently had interacted with a newspaper proprietor for getting the Enforcement Director, Mr M.K. Bezbaruah transferred.

Terming the charge as "unacceptable", the BJP general secretary, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, told mediapersons here that the party "has taken a serious note of the charge made by the AIADMK and that it is unacceptable from an alliance partner. If there is an issue, it should be raised at the coordination committee or sorted out among the concerned parties and not be aired through the media".

"The BJP does not want to join issue with its alliance partner", Mr Naidu said replying to a question as to how long the party would tolerate such behaviour by Ms Jayalalitha. "We will take an appropriate decision at the appropriate time", he stressed.

New Agni can hit up to 3,000 km

Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 19 — The new version of Agni, the development of which was recently approved by the government, is to have a range of 3,000 kms.

The new version, which would be an intermediate range ‘battle-ready’ ballistic missile, would have a range twice as that of the much publicised Ghauri missile developed by Pakistan earlier this year. It would also have a much longer range than Ghaznavi, another missile being developed by Pakistan. According to reports, Ghaznavi was likely to have a range of about 2,000 km.

The development of the new range of the Agni would involve the use of state-of-art technologies developed indigenously and the approval for it comes following the successful completion of the first phase demonstrating the re-entry technology.

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence had also recently welcomed the clearance of the extended range version of the Agni. The committee had welcomed the clearance especially as Pakistan was continuing its missile development programme which was primarily aimed at India.

Recently, after the nuclear explosions carried out by India and Pakistan, the latter even reportedly claimed to have had their missiles targetted at Indian sites. China has also developed a large number of missile systems which could target any part of India.

The committee was of the view that the government should go ahead full steam in a time-bound manner to develop the full range of missiles in addition to the variants of ‘Agni’ currently under development as a deterrent to potential enemies from using their ballistic missile capabilities against any of India's assets.

Highly placed sources said the clearance for the new version of the Agni would necessarily not mean that a decision to ultimately deploy the weapon had also been taken out. Two milestones would have be crossed before the deployment. The first would be the serial production and the second would be the induction.

The Agni project, after the successful completion of the first stage, had initially been put on hold as the development of a missile system had not been envisaged. However, the Standing Committee on Defence in its report last year had felt that, in view of the change in the strategic environment and developments of military significance in the neighbourhood having bearing on the security of the nation, the government should review its ‘technology demonstrator — Agni missile project’ and that a decision be expeditiously taken to go in for serial production of this strategic missile for induction into the armed forces.

So far the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) had conducted three tests of the Agni missile system at a cost of about Rs 55 crore. The first test was carried out on May 22, 1989 and the third on February 19, 1994.

Agni, which was designed to have a range beyond 1,500 km, has a remarkable circular error probability (CEP) figures (which determine a missile’s strike accuracy) and is a tribute to the fine band of Indian missilemen that it excels in crucial operational areas like re-entry, long range manoeuvring and two-staged propulsion, and stage separation.

More importantly, Agni’s guidance system and vehicle structure form an excellent configuration for the missile’s modification as the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), Surya, which is already on the drawing board and which would be able to reach targets in other continents.

According to sources, Agni is likely to undergo modifications though major redesigning of the system from its existing configuration may not be taken up. " The Agni is based on first stage solid and second stage liquid fuel configuration. This is unlikely to be changed though modifications may be required as the range was now to be enhanced.

Major redesigning would have been required had the fuel configuration been changed. Most IRBMs are based on the ‘user friendly’ and less cumbersome all solid-fuel configuration. Solid fuel also has better shelf-life and can easily be transported.

A better design computer hardware and software combination is likely to be one of the key aspects of the possible modification. Improvement of the guidance package involving the correlation of global positioning system and the inertial navigation system to make the missile more accurate.