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Fernandes to sue Jayalalitha

Samata Party chief and Defence Minister George Fernandes will sue All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader J Jayalalitha for her "most dangerous, malicious and false" statements accusing him of preventing the Indian Navy from apprehending the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's drug dealers and gun-runners near the Andaman Islands.

Samata Party general secretary Jaya Jaitly said the party's formal complaint to the Election Commission had resulted in no corrective action being taken so far and Jayalalitha was repeating her allegations. She however said she was not sure which court Fernandes would be approaching in the next two days.

The statement, according to Jaitly, was ''untrue, malicious, highly dangerous and defamatory'' and the entire accusation was a ''figment of Ms Jayalalitha's fertile imagination.'' The accusations also brought the armed forces into disrepute because they would have willingly or unwillingly carried out the ''so-called instructions.''

Taking a snipe at the EC Jaitley said it tended to take cognisance of the ''headlines'' of Delhi newspapers rather than going by the gravity and nature of allegations.

The Commission had asked the armed services to ''step out of the limelight'' since the minister was a politician and likely to contest elections. The defence ministry, she said, was unaware of the documentary being made. The EC's warning cast aspersions on the minister who at no point wanted to use the armed forces for any political matter, least of all election related publicity, she said.

Jaitley defended the election speech of Fernandes in Karnataka where he ridiculed Congress president Sonia Gandhi's public utterance that she became a ''bride, mother and a widow'' in India. He was only stating that none of these qualified her for holding the prime ministership of this country. Motherhood is not an issue, but dynastic politics certainly is, she added.

Jaitly said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's appeal asking the National Democratic Alliance leaders to observe restraint was not directed against Fernandes. He had not used any ''bad language.'' One could not expect to become prime minister of India by reading out written speeches or by becoming a mother of two, she said maintaining that there was nothing in Fernandes' election speech which required an apology.

The prime minister was ''saying in general'' that the debate should be in proper spirits.

The Congress, which she said was making this a big issue, was describing the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in Bellary as a ''haggling housewife,'' Jaitly pointed out.

UNI

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