Jaitly who was also seen in the tape talking to some ‘business people’ says she had no idea that the conversation was about defence deals.
New Delhi: Former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly said that the political controversy surrounding the 2001 Tehelka sting operation — which shook the NDA-1 government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and sullied the image of then defence minister George Fernandes — had no substance in it.
“Nobody bothered to go through the tapes thoroughly and find out what exactly the conversation was. There was just political mud-slinging and nothing else,” Jaitly said at the release of her memoir, Life Among The Scorpions, Wednesday.
She was in conversation with ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta at the book launch.
Tehelka had in 2001 conducted a sting operation, exposing what it said was corruption in defence deals. The video showed Jaitly talking to “business people” dealing in defence equipment in the official residence of Fernandes, her long-time companion.
The then BJP president Bangaru Laxman was also seen in the video accepting a bribe for allegedly ensuring that a particular company bagged defence contracts.
Jaitly said it was her “naiveness” that cost her dearly.
“George-saheb never put locks on the gate. Anybody could walk in and talk. I could not understand that this conversation was about defence deals, etc,” she said, adding that her only intention was to check corruption if there was any.
Explaining the title of her book, Jaitly said she had been stung so many times by people around her but survived and hence Life Among The Scorpions. She also recounted the story of a woman in Malaysia who decided to live in a glass case with 2,000 scorpions — when she finally emerged, she survived and had made two scorpion friends, one of which was named Bob. Jaitly said she found similarities between Bob and Fernandes.
Recalling her association with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, she said he was always more comfortable working with bureaucrats than fellow politicians.
“He is inscrutable. He was prime minister-material but he was never humane,” she added.
“I was shocked when he joined hands with Lalu as we have fought very hard with Lalu in the fodder scam and other cases”.
Talking about her plunge into politics, Jaitly recounted how the anti-Sikh violence of 1984 shook her to the core. “After witnessing the violence, I thought the time to sit in drawing rooms and talking about politics is over. I should join politics and fight these forces,” she said.
Referring to the controversial appointment of Jagmohan as governor of Jammu and Kashmir by then prime minister V.P. Singh, Jaitly said even Fernandes, who was then minister for Kashmir Affairs, was kept in dark about it. “Then Prime Minister V.P. Singh assured George-sahib that Jagmohan would not be appointed as governor of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.
After getting the assurance from the PM, he went out of Delhi to attend a function and within an hour got the news of Jagmohan’s appointment as governor. “But I was not aware what made V.P. Singh change his mind so quickly,” said Jaitly.
She also lamented the failure of talks with Kashmiris. “The fact remains that none of the talks efforts have been successful so far,” she said.
“Efforts are being made to talk to separatists but nobody bothers to talk to common Kashmiris. Even the common Kashmiris are frustrated by the separatists,” she said, adding that she wished the new interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma, luck.