abhishreshthaa
Abhijeet S
On 13 March 2001, Operation Westend, a sting operation conducted by a team of journalists from the investigative journal Tehelka, exposed the corruption within the then ruling coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The journalists posed as members of a fictitious arms company and appeared to bribe the Bharatiya Janata Party President, Bangaru Laxman, a senior officer in the Indian Army and Jaya Jaitley, the General Secretary of the Samata Party and Fernandes' companion.
Operation Westend was a sting operation aimed at sensationalizing the corruption underlying India's large defence contracts. The original investigative piece by Tehelka in 2001 targeted several members of the National Democratic Alliance. It showed several political figures, as well as army top brass, colluding to take bribes that approached 4% of orders totaling hundreds of crores in order to approve defense contracts. The minister in charge of Defence, George Fernandes of the Samata Party, resigned after the tapes were made public, but he was reinstated later. Part of the tapes show the treasurer of his party talking about accepting bribes of 1 crore or more.
The scandal caused uproar all over India and Fernandes was forced to resign from his post as a Defence Minister. He was subsequently cleared by the one man commission headed by retired Justice Phukan. Tehelka was accused of fabricating allegations and carrying out a biased and motivated campaign carried out at the behest of the political foes of George Fernandes. In the Tehelka tapes, the reporter (usually Aniruddha Bahal) is posing as a representative of the fictitious large arms supplier West End.
Operation Westend was a sting operation aimed at sensationalizing the corruption underlying India's large defence contracts. The original investigative piece by Tehelka in 2001 targeted several members of the National Democratic Alliance. It showed several political figures, as well as army top brass, colluding to take bribes that approached 4% of orders totaling hundreds of crores in order to approve defense contracts. The minister in charge of Defence, George Fernandes of the Samata Party, resigned after the tapes were made public, but he was reinstated later. Part of the tapes show the treasurer of his party talking about accepting bribes of 1 crore or more.
The scandal caused uproar all over India and Fernandes was forced to resign from his post as a Defence Minister. He was subsequently cleared by the one man commission headed by retired Justice Phukan. Tehelka was accused of fabricating allegations and carrying out a biased and motivated campaign carried out at the behest of the political foes of George Fernandes. In the Tehelka tapes, the reporter (usually Aniruddha Bahal) is posing as a representative of the fictitious large arms supplier West End.
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