NEW DELHI, Dec 11 Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s coalition government was facing a fresh threat on Tuesday over a new defence scandal after caskets meant to carry the remains of the fallen soldiers of the Kargil war were found to have been over-priced, unfit for use and shipped only after the conflict was over.

“Kafan Chor Gaddi Chhoro” (Coffin Thieves Must Quit), an opposition slogan, which rent through the parliament’s two houses and forced their closure throughout the day, was expected to become the emotional rallying point to target Vajpayee’s government in the coming state elections in Uttar Pradesh and East Punjab.

Vajpayee was elected for the longest of his three innings in the shadows of the 1999 Kargil war.

The opposition was referring to a report by the Comptroller- and Auditor-General (CAG) that said the government purchased the coffins meant for soldiers killed in the war at 2,500 dollars each, though the usual price was 172 dollars per coffin.

The CAG report, tabled in parliament amidst uproar and demand for resignation of Defence Minister George Fernandes, said there were lapses and irregularities in the entire purchase of specialized weaponry for mountain warfare aimed to give country’s soldiers some advantage in a bleak terrain.

It highlighted financial impropriety in as many as 35 of the 123 defence contracts worth Rs 2,1630 million for the Kargil operations.

The report said supplies of vital equipment ranging from hand-held thermals, terminally guided ammunition, bullet proof jacket, flame throwers, sniper and anti-material rifles valued at Rs 21,500 million hostilities in July 1999.

The government seemed to have been put on the defensive and, as External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh later said, “feels the same pain as the Opposition” since the matter has brought shame to all.

The entire opposition was united in declaring that for them this scandal was much more important than the Prevention of Terrorism Act bill that it proposed to bring on Wednesday.

Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha, Manmohan Singh, demanded Fernandes’ resignation and in Lok Sabha almost the entire opposition was in the well.

Some of them were heard shouting, “Kafan Chor, Gaddi Chhoro”. In the Lok Sabha the Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, was seen standing up to show her protest, a rare gesture compared with her usually proper parliamentary demeanour.

Fernandes told reporters later that there had been a breach of contract by the firm that supplied coffins for the Kargil dead.

US firm Buitron and Baize had the contract for the procurement of 500 aluminium caskets to transport the soldiers’ bodies.

Refusing to take responsibility for the breach of contract, Fernandes said it was the job of the Public Accounts Committee to pin charges.