NEW DELHI, Dec 21: India’s scandal-tainted rightwing nationalist government was heading for a potentially debilitating showdown in a parliamentary probe on Saturday which has found it guilty of dubious defence deals during the Kargil conflict.

“There is a showdown in the offing between the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) looking into all defence deals carried out during and after the Kargil war and Defence Minister George Fernandes,” Star News reported on Saturday.

One deal the CAG has severely criticized is the decision to buy nine advanced early warning helicopters for the Indian Navy to increase the fleet’s capacity to detect incoming missiles. The cost incurred is Rs9 billion.

The PAC headed by Congress MP Buta Singh is examining the CAG’s audit report on naval acquisitions.

According to Star News, the CAG report claims the helicopter was only a prototype and that the Russians had not even made a single one till then.

The evaluation trials of the helicopters were incomplete and the early warning radar, the most vital element, was of 1983 vintage.

It quoted the probe as finding that the helicopter’s ability to provide fighter interception from ground stations could not be proved.

Since there was no competitive bidding, each helicopter cost almost 56 per cent more than the Naval Headquarters’ estimate, it said.

As a result, this deal, finalized in just four days during the standoff with Pakistan, ended up spending an extra Rs1.18 billion.

Fernandes was forced to resign as defence minister in the wake of the Tehelka expose of questionable defence deals during his tenure. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, however, inducted him again into the job, triggering a perpetual showdown with the opposition that refuses to hear him speak in parliament.

The government says that Fernandes has not been able to respond to these accusations because the opposition is not ready to let him respond in parliament. But it is a fact that the defence ministry has also not sent its report to the PAC investigating all these deals, Star News said.

On the issue of bringing in a privilege notice against the defence minister, he said: “Yes, this is also one of the items before the honourable speaker.”