New Delhi, May 13
The NDA convener and former Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, said today that the UPA government’s accompanying note on the Phukan Commission’s report tabled in Parliament sought to assail the report without advancing any “coherent reasons.”
Addressing mediapersons at his residence here today, Mr Fernandes said the tabling of the report of the Phukan Commission in Parliament today with an accompanying note was one in the series of continuous attempts by the Congress and its allies in subverting the commission of inquiry, constituted to probe the Tehelka tapes.
Mr Fernandes said the UPA
government first tried to tarnish the image of Justice Phukan in order to create doubts in the mind of the public about the credibility of the report. He accused the government of using the “ clever device” of tabling the report on the last day of Parliament in order to avoid any embarrassment. “Had they tabled the report earlier, we would have called off the boycott of parliamentary proceedings.”
Asked if he had been given a clean chit by the Phukan
Commission, Mr Fernandes said, “Justice
Phukan has stated the truth and the truth is that I’ve never taken a single penny from anybody. They have tried to malign me but they should not attack the Supreme Court judges. Look at the way they treated the two Supreme Court judges (Justice K. Venkataswamy and Justice S.N. Phukan.”
To a question whether the public would believe the contents of the Phukan Commission report after reading the government’s accompanying report, Mr Fernandes said, “Those who believe in truth will believe in Justice Phukan’s report. I’m confident that the Indian citizens who believe in truth outnumber those who support
falsehood.”
Asked to comment on the government's observation in the accompanying report that the commission report submitted to the then Prime Minister on February 4 last year did not cover the aspect of illicit gains by persons in public office, Mr Fernandes shot back, “For illicit gains, one should go back in history. Who is telling who what?”
Circulating a synopsis of the Justice Phukan report tabled in Parliament, Mr Fernandes wondered why the
government was making conflicting observations about the report.
