Bangalore: Asking the no-frill airline Air Deccan to supply fruit juice on board, Defence Minister George Fernandes on August 25 suggested that they should not sell Coca Cola.

"Don't sell Coca Cola...it is better to give coconut water, apple juice or pineapple juice," Fernandes told the air-hostess on the inaugural flight from Bangalore to Mangalore.

"Many years ago, I threw Coca Cola out of the country," he said of his move in banning the American soft drink giant alongwith IBM from India in 1977 as Union Industries Minister and introducing 77 Cola as an alternate drink.

"All countries like to promote their drink…In the United States, they promote Coke. Here we have such excellent coconut water, coconut milk and everyone who comes here will relish it and take it back home," Fernandes said.

Stating that Coca Cola was all about "marketing", he said the response from people when he banned the aerated drink brand was, "That George Fernandes, he must not have been given the money he demanded."

Fernandes said that he had brought coconut water and milk packed in tetrapacks from China and "showed it to some of the people who produce these things here".

"China is doing it, why can't we do it," he asked, adding that apples grown in North India and Kashmir were "rotting" as there was no market for them.

"In North East, we produce such juicy pineapples, so much…pineapple juice is something that can help in ending some of the problems we have in North East," Fernandes said.

PTI