``I challenge the honourable minister to obtain affidavits on stamp paper from owners, publishers and correspondents of the newspapers that information about the so-called secret advanced technology vessel (ATV) project was leaked by me to them,'' Bhagwat told mediapersons in an informal chat at his Colaba residence.

The former Navy chief said he was ``waiting for the day'' when both he and Fernandes would ``have to give evidence before a joint parliamentary committee.''

The admiral said ``if the primary reason to sack a chief of naval staff (CNS) was that he leaked information about the project to the media, then I put it to the President K R Narayanan who is the supreme commander of the armed forces, members of Parliament, JPC, Cabinet, ministers for law andpersonnel, appointments committee of Cabinet and defence ministry, that every CNS in the last 20 years should be similarly held responsible and accountable''.

``If this criteria has been adopted for sacking the CNS, certainly my immediate three predecessors should be held responsible for hundreds of articles published in India and worldwide with regard to the status of the project,'' Bhagwat said.