There has been a persistent demand to set up a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe both these incidents. The Government has used the staple argument that the former finance advisor's allegations do not merit any such immediate action since they are not backed by established evidence. Guruswamy had said that a ``coterie'' in the Prime Minister's residence, including his adopted son-in-law, has played a dubious role in offering ``unholy'' deals to some handpicked corporates while Admiral Bhagwat had said quite unambiguously that there were many defence deals which were not strictly above board and that defence minister George Fernandes could not be faulted for being blissfully uninformed about these matters in his ministry.

Both these key men have made serious _ very serious, indeed _ allegations and it is the right of the nation and the duty of the policy-makers to come clean. Finally, the government has been forced to make a submission that the two issues would be discussed in Parliament on March 16 but without voting on the debates. The CPI(M) parliamentarian Mohd Selim said in the Rajya Sabha that while the government was trying to dilute the issue, it was significant that there was a conscious effort on the part of the powers-that-be to even dismiss the fact Guruswamy was indeed part of a crucial department and in an official capacity. Nobody can quite be dismissive about the fact that Guruswamy was a BJP man and that his appointment came only after the BJP coalition came to power. Obviously, it thus stands to reason that his allegations cannot be wished away as the harangues of a man suddenly divested of power.

While the BJP cannot take anything away from the fact that the former finance minister's appointment was ``political'' what, however, is most significant in this case is the nature of the allegations brought by Guruswamy which have squarely put the Prime Minister on the mat since it is his close relative who is supposed to be striking deals on behalf of a duly-elected government. The Opposition has made it clear that nothing short of the constitution a JPC can solve the matter and restore confidence in the government since there is now talk of corruption in the kitchen of the highest executive power of the country.

Many big names are now up for scrutiny, chief among them those of Yashwant Sinha, Pramode Mahajan and L.K. Advani. The charges are not exactly trivial; there are allegations that the finance ministry had prevailed upon the financial institution, UTI, on a major decision regarding the tobacco giant, ITC, and that steel prices had been hiked in export deals without much of an explanation except to fill up the pockets of a select few. It is also strange and perhaps a test case of how the guilty rises in defence even when not asked for an explanation that Mahajan tried to interrupt the Congress member, Manmohan Singh, when the latter was dwelling on length on the steel prices. In fact, Rajya Sabha chairman Krishna Kant, made matters quite simple for the country that Singh had not even made any reference to Mahajan in the first place!