New Delhi, May 13: The BJP, which had described Manmohan Singh as India’s “weakest” Prime Minister and his government as a “lame-duck”, was forced to revise its opinion after a probe was ordered into the sale of Centaur, Juhu, by finance minister P. Chidambaram on the last day of the budget session.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance got another jolt when the United Progressive Alliance government rejected the findings of the Phukan commission that inquired into the Tehelka sting operation on then defence minister George Fernandes.

The twin blows, BJP sources admitted, were “particularly damaging” because they dented the images of two of its “mascots”. The main object of the Centaur probe will be former disinvestment minister Arun Shourie, who was the party’s Mr Clean.

Fernandes was being groomed by a section of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the NDA’s leader, in case of a realignment of political forces in the Lok Sabha, because of his “socialist stature” and “acceptance” to non-Congress secular parties.

Fernandes’s reaction to the Phukan commission report’s rejection was to rake up the Bofors deal.

“If you really want to go into the illicit gains made out of defence deals, we must get back to Quattrocchi. This family (the Gandhis) has survived on that,” he said.

The Janata Dal (United) president alleged that the Congress-led alliance at the Centre is repeatedly subverting agencies that does not toe its line and compared its move to “saying that the government will disregard an order of the Supreme Court because the submissions of the attorney-general were not considered”.

However, the former minister of state for external affairs, Digvijay Singh, and confidant Jaya Jaitly, who was recently questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation for her alleged role in a defence deal, were the only people Fernandes had for company. Dal (U) heavyweights Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav were not with him.

The duo was present throughout the NDA’s boycott of Parliament, which many leaders, including some in the BJP, said was Fernandes-inspired to avoid facing questions on the defence deals under probe.

But the BJP continued to wave the Fernandes flag through Yashwant Sinha.

The former finance minister claimed that, contrary to the government’s contention, the Phukan report had an accompanying note that stated “there was no prima facie establishment of charges” against Fernandes.

“The responsibility should be fixed only at the level at which the decision was taken,” Sinha said.

Sinha endeavoured to revive memories of the Sukhoi with the insinuation that on April 4, 1996, an advance of $142,268 was paid “without any contract and before the cabinet approved it for acquisition” when Manmohan Singh was finance minister.

On the Centaur probe, Sinha said: “They are jumping the gun. Only in circumstances when instances of misappropriation, fraud and defalcation are found by the CAG is an inquiry given to an outside agency. Otherwise, it should go to the public accounts committee.”