Tehelka expose is just tip of an iceberg -- Bhagwat

Tehelka expose is just tip of an iceberg -- Bhagwat
Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR, MAR 23: Former Naval chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat on Thursday fully justified the Tehelka.Com expose and said what the portal has captured in the camera on defence deals was just ‘tip of an iceberg’.

Without naming anyone, Bhagawat, who was unceremoniously ousted as chief of Indian Navy, said some top leaders of the country have ‘compromised’ on defence deals and everything have been video-taped by foreign agencies. These agencies are now blackmailing our leaders and forcing them to act according to their tune, he said.

Bhagwat was delivering a talk on ‘India’s security in the present context’ organised on the eve of Saheed Bhagat Singh’s 70th martyrdom day.

He said Tehelka.Com’s journalists have just shown how low the leaders of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government can go for a paltry Rs 1 or 2 lakh and by spending some Rs 21 lakh all total, said Bhagawat, adding, if these journalists had Rs 21 crore, right techniques, sophisticated cameras and enough time they could have gone right up to the top of the system. The Admiral said these days kickbacks on defence deals are directly being deposited in the Swiss Bank.

Bhagawat said this defence deals expose was just a beginning, if the NDA government was allowed to remain in power for a 5-year term the country would become a slave of our enemy countries. These leaders (read NDA leaders) have been strongly proposing for allowing an elected government to continue for full-term because they could realise all the conspiracy they had to destroy our sovereignty.

Alleging that a large number of defence personnel and officials were given promotion and transferred to key posts, Bhagwat said, through this, the NDA government wanted to create no hassle while passing important files. He alleged large-scale irregularities in the posting and promotions in the Defence Ministry and armed forces.

He also said the present Army chief has some knowledge, if not all, about the current state of affairs of India’s security.

Taking a dig at former Defence Minister George Fernandes, the former Naval chief said the former was a man with dubious character. ‘‘Fernandes should be given Oscar award for best action as he has acted so successfully to fool all the people for so many years’’, commented Bhagawat. The same man (Fernandes) was giving a clean chit to former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif and ISI only a few month ago, now he is saying Tehelka.Com was a game plan of ISI, maintained the Admiral.