Fernandes ready for probe into coffin scam

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Convenor and leader of the Janata Dal (U) George Fernandes yesterday played down the contribution of the Gujarat riots to the alliance's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and set the stage for what promises to be a deeply contentious Lok Sabha session, by demanding a time-bound probe into the coffin scam.

Fernandes called a press conference to announce he was ready to face a "quick" probe in the scam, which according to him would not take more than two weeks.

"The material is easily available with the Army Headquarters and it will not be a cumbersome task to establish whether I or anyone else has made illegal money out of this stalled procurement," he said, releasing copies of a letter he has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Referring to a media report that senior government and Army officials were queuing up before Congress President Sonia Gandhi and advising her on matters of national security "to get promotions and plum posts", Fernandes said the new government should take immediate action against such officers, who were allegedly leaking official secrets to the MP (Sonia Gandhi).

On Gujarat, Fernandes said he had read defeated Janata Dal (U) MP from Banka Digvijay Singh's statement that Gujarat was the reason for the NDA's defeat.

He said he had also noted the observation of former minister Shahnawaz Hussain that it was Gujarat that cost the BJP so many seats in the elections.

He, however, said these were the opinions of individual MPs, and not the alliance's view.