Nalin Verma
A senior journalist & Patna based special correspondent of The Statesman.

GEORGE Fernandes is an angry man today. The maverick MP from the Kurmi-dominated Nalanda constituency in Bihar fumes at tehelka.com for using prostitutes to pursue a story.

"I have also edited a few magazines. I cannot even think of journalism like this," he says.

Yes, it cannot be denied that Mr Fernandes has edited magazines. But why can't he remember that he had compared Parliament to a "Veshyalaya (house of prostitutes)" in the Hindi weekly, Pratipaksha that he edited in the 1970s?

Pratipaksha in its cover story of 8 September 1974 wrote: "Indian Parliament never lacked thieves, brokers and frauds. But the present Parliament represents a group of professional brokers who are also professional frauds.

These parliamentarians have made the House look like a house of prostitutes."

This issue of Pratipaksha had Mr Fernandes as its chief editor on its print-line. And people close to him say the cover article comparing Parliament to a house of prostitutes was written by Mr Fernandes himself.

The article had generated much heat in the Lok Sabha at that time. The House could not function for five consecutive days with agitated members demanding a privilege motion against Mr Fernandes and his Pratipaksha. The members had also demanded an adjournment to discuss the "indecent" comparison. Of course, Mr Fernandes was not a member of the House then. And 1974 is, no doubt, a long time ago.

The Tehelka tapes have, to an extent, highlighted the degeneration of morality in public life. But Mr Fernandes must now throw light on the present composition of Parliament. Is the use of prostitutes by tehelka.com to pursue its story a bigger crime than comparing Parliament to a brothel?

Major-General PSK Choudhary has publicly accepted that, "I responded to the allurements given by the Tehelka's fake defence dealers the way 95 per cent people in power would have responded."

He said this before the Venkataswami Commission, which is seized of the matter. If anything, his statement suggests that 95 per cent of the people enjoying power are corrupt and responsive to illegal offers. Instead of curing the system of such corrupt people, Mr Fernandes and his supporters are making a hue and cry with the demand that the Tehelka team be sent to jail. His Samata Party wants the government to lodge an FIR against Tehelka CEO and editor Tarun Tejpal and his team.

It is best to reserve comment on whether the media should use call girls to pursue its stories or prove its points. But the fact is that Mr Fernandes had used his "journalistic acumen" to raise fire and brimstone against the government in Parliament in 1974.

And that "journalistic acumen" was similar to that the Tehelka team used to expose corruption in the country's defence system. Still, the government of the time had not taken action against Mr Fernandes and his Pratipaksha. It was probably because the government feared that it might land in trouble by inviting a debate on Mr Fernandes's comparison.

The Tehelka tapes have, at least, proved that the present government, too, has many chinks in its armour. And if it goes after the Tehelka team instead of curing the malaise in the system, it will expose its weaknesses all the more.

It is not known what drove Mr Fernandes to spit venom at tehelka. But his party insiders say Mr Fernandes is trying to get back his berth in the ministry by targeting tehelka. But will this serve his purpose ? Only time will tell.

But the fact remains that the wily MP has hardly been consistent in his stand. He announced categorically that he would not take oath as a minister when the Janata Party came to power by defeating the Congress in 1977. But Mr Fernandes was in the first row among those who took oath in the Morarji Desai ministry.

He spoke eloquently in favour of the Desai government during a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha in 1978. But the very next day, he joined the Congress-backed ministry of Charan Singh which replaced the one headed by Morarji Desai.

"Mr Fernandes is a star trickster….He can do any trick to stay in power," says Rashtriya Janata Dal spokesman Shivanand Tiwary. "Be it the Sangh Parivar, the BJP or any other party, Mr Fernandes can join any stream to stay in power," says Mr Tiwary.

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