Strip Searching of Fernandes

Date: 
Monday, July 12, 2004

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
Servile Attitude Of Vajpayee Government On Fernandes Affair

Mr. George Fernandes has confirmed that when he was the Union Defence Minister, he was strip-searched on two occasions when he visited the United States in 2002 and 2003. This admission has come only after the revelation in Strobe Talbot’s book. It is amazing that the Vajpayee government and George Fernandes himself kept quiet about this serious affront to an Indian Cabinet Minister. This was not of a personal matter but concerned the dignity and status of India and its government’s high representative.
It is a sign of the servile attitude of the BJP-led government towards the USA that it did not publicly state that such behaviour is unacceptable, lodge a formal protest and seek an apology from the US government.