Bribery scandal plunges Delhi into turmoil

India's defence minister quit yesterday while the Trinamool Congress (TC), a key partner in the Bharatiya Janata Party led ruling coalition withdrew support over a sensational arms bribery scandal plunging the fragile Atal Bihari Vajpayee government into a deeper crisis.

Defence Minister George Fernandes' resignation came hours after Jaya Jaitly, the president of his Samata Party and a member of the ruling coalition, quit over allegations that she took money for her party from journalists posing as arms dealers to push for a fictitious arms deal.

Jaitly, Fernandes' long-time companion, was among a string of public figures, bureaucrats and army officers secretly filmed by undercover journalists of Internet web site tehelka.com.

The 70-year-old firebrand socialist said he was quitting to uphold the morale of the armed forces. "While there are black sheep in every organisation, and it is possible some individuals could have been corrupted in this vast machinery of government, it would be wrong and despicable to tarnish everyone with the same brush," he said.

The spate of resignations, included that of federal agriculture minister Nitish Kumar and junior ministers Digvijay Singh and Srinivas Prasad from the Samata party. It was set off when the maverick TC leader Mamata Banerjee, India's railways minister, resigned from the government along with her party colleague Ajit Kumar Panja, a junior minister in the foreign office.

Including TC's nine lawmakers, the government had a fairly comfortable majority, commanding more than 300 votes in the 545-seat lower house of parliament. TC's exit leaves Vajpayee vulnerable to the Telugu Desam Party, which supports the government from outside with a crucial 29 lawmakers. The TDP is under pressure to withdraw support. The Pattali Makkal Katchi, with five Members of Parliament withdrew from the NDA last month.

Smelling blood, an emboldened opposition which has virtually brought the country to a standstill, has started to mount pressure on Vajpayee to quit office.

"This is the beginning of the disintegration of the alliance," Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said.

Earlier in the day, rival parties almost came to blows outside parliament. Proceedings in both houses were stalled for a second day. Security guards had to form a line between two groups as they chanted slogans and surged menacingly towards each other.

Vajpayee, who briefed President K.R. Narayanan on events, rejected the resignations of Nitish, Digvijay and Prasad after an emergency meeting with his alliance partners.

Mamata has reiterated there would be no reconsideration even after her demands for Fernandes' resignation and an independent probe were met.