The Hindu : National : Not strip-searched: Fernandes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

National

National

Not strip-searched: Fernandes

NEW DELHI, JULY 14 . As controversy raged over his "frisking" at a U.S. airport last year, the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, today denied he underwent a "strip-search."

"Nothing like a strip-search happened there," he told reporters here referring to the book authored by a former United States Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, which says that the then Defence Minister, Mr. Fernandes, was "strip-searched" twice. Mr. Fernandes said he was asked to remove his coat, shoes and socks, which he did. "Then I was asked to spread my arms and raise them," he said, adding after that khel khatam ho gaya (the drama ended).

The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today said he was not aware of the controversial searching of Mr. Fernandes by airport security in the United States. "I don't know about it," he told Zee News.

Asked whether he had not been informed about the incident, he said: "No." Appreciating the United States Embassy for expressing regret and apology over the "strip-searching" of Mr. Fernandes during his visit to the United States two years ago as Defence Minister, the Congress said the silence on the part of Mr. Vajpayee and his External Affairs Minister was ``intriguing... "

"They (Vajpayee and his External Affairs Minister) should break their silence on the issue," the party's spokesman, Anand Sharma, told reporters here. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National