Friday, May 6 2005 18:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Former Defence Minister George Fernandes today (May 6, 2005) threatened to move the court against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government if it did not lay the Phukan Commission report before Parliament within three days.

"I demand that the Justice S N Phukan report be placed before Parliament within the next three days. I have made this demand in writing to the (Lok Sabha) Speaker," he told reporters in New Delhi.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor said that if his demand was not met, he would move the court.

In his letter to the Speaker, copies of which were circulated at the press conference, he said that the Government had itself committed to tabling the report in both Houses in two and a half weeks. "This time has now come," he said.

In the meantime, he said that all efforts had been made to "discredit Justice Phukan and thereby the report, by sections of the media and constituents of the UPA and its supporting parties".

"Irrespective of these dirty tactics, I request you to direct the Government to fulfil its commitment and lay the report before Parliament immediately," Fernandes said.

He said that by casting a cloud over the report, the UPA Government wants to wriggle out of a "self-created murky conspiracy that threatens to blow up in its own face".

Ridiculing the second affidavit filed in the Supreme Court regarding the 'coffin gate scam' after the first one virtually gave him a clean chit, he said "Never in the history of the Defence Ministry has such a sordid, politically ring-mastered circus taken place".

On Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement in Parliament, Fernandes said that it nowhere mentioned that he, as the Defence Minister had initiated the idea of providing a service aircraft for the probe panel.

He said that the aircraft used by the Commission was not a VVIP aircraft. "Indeed, the aircraft used by the Commission has minimal amenities, not even a rudimentary toilet, and by no stretch of imagination can the Avro be called comfortable, leave alone luxurious," he said.

The former Defence Minister said that he had given the approval upon reading the file put up to him that the Commission had decided to visit locations where 14 Defence items, whose purchases were being probed by the Commission could be inspected.

"Had I refused permission, then a case would have been made out against me that I was obstructing the functioning of Commission," he said.

Fernandes also pointed out that Justice Phukan had himself clarified to the media that he "never asked for VVIP aircraft" and nor was he provided one.

He said that nothing in Mukherjee's statement suggested that the Commission had gone on a "junket", a phrase "unfairly used by a section of the media to discredit the Commission".

Fernandes said Mukherjee's statement absolved him of the "false allegations" against him. "In a way, and unwittingly perhaps, he has given a 'clean chit' to me for the second time," the NDA leader said and challenged "anybody in the UPA Government" to show how he had in manner paid a "bribe" to Justice Phukan.