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Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Defence Minister George Fernandes in the wake of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General that pointed towards irregularities in army procurements, including those pertaining to caskets for Kargil martyrs.
"I feel astounded by the scam.....that they can do this to martyrs. First it was Tehelka and now this. This is totally unacceptable to us," Gandhi said at an Iftar hosted by her at the party's headquarters in New Delhi.
She said the deputy leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, Shivraj Patil, had a meeting with Speaker G M C Balayogi, during which he demanded the resignation of Fernandes.
Gandhi parried a question on whether she would demand the resignation of the Vajpayee government.
The party was attended by several opposition stalwarts, including Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Communist Part of India-Marxist leaders Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Somnath Chatterjee, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and former prime ministers Chandra Shekhar and I K Gujral.
Union Ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Sharad Yadav, and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah were also present.
PTI
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