Friday, April 22 2005 20:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Under attack over arms procurements during the Kargil conflict and the Denel deal, former Defence Minister George Fernandes today (Apr 22, 2005) charged the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty with "personal vendetta" for his "anti Congressism".

He said that Army officers from the lowest to the highest ranks would have to be put in the dock alongwith him in the Defence procurement cases whenever summoned, as he had acted on the requirements put forward by them.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Convener alleged that it was a "conspiracy to demoralise the armed forces" whether it was Kargil purchases, the Tehelka expose or the coffin issue.

Maintaining that it was not for the first time in his 56 years of public life that he has been a victim of "Congress' vendetta", he told a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Intellectual Cell meeting, "I haven't studied why the Congress does it but I am a hardcore opponent of that party, I have suffered the worst. If they think they can browbeat me by harassing me, they are mistaken".

"People who have no love for this country are behind the conspiracy to demoralise the forces. I will not allow this country to be looted. I have only one country. Others may have other countries", he said in an apparent reference to the Congress president's foreign origin.