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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday conveyed to Samata Party leader George Fernandes that the National Democratic Alliance would have to fight tehelka.com and its methods on a political level.
He also rejected Fernandes's request for a government inquiry into the matter, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra told rediff.com.
"The prime minister conveyed the message to Fernandes that tehelka.com strategy of using sex workers in its investigations will have to be tackled at the political level," Malhotra said.
"This is our stand and it was just re-emphasised to the Samata leader by Vajpayeeji," he added.
BJP Member of Parliament Rajiv Pratap Rudi justifying Vajpayee's decision asserted, "The government has instituted a judicial inquiry (Venkataswami Commission) to probe Tehelka's allegations. Therefore, it cannot possibly flout its own directive."
Asked why Samata members were going out of their way to highlight the issue, Rudi said, "The former defence minister (Fernandes belongs to Samata) had to resign over Tehelka. They feel that a great injustice has been done to them."
He said 'caving in' to the Samata demand for a government probe was likely to trigger off similar demands.
"The government is aware that even Bangaru Laxman had to step down as the BJP chief. Tomorrow, somebody can say why not give him back his job, and the same kind of demand may be raised for Jaya Jaitly (who had to step down as the Samata chief)," Rudi pointed out.
Samata party spokesman Shambhu Shrivastava contended that he was not aware of what the prime minister had told Fernandes but said, "We will continue to focus on Tehelka's crookedness, both inside and outside Parliament."
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