Congress president, Sonia Gandhi has been accused of having a hand in the Tehelka sting, "Operation West End." This allegation was made by former Samata party president, Jaya Jaitly. The operation led to the resignation of George Fernandes as the defence minister. She also alleged that when the UPA was in power, Sonia Gandhi had asked then Finance Minister, P Chidambaram to ensure that Tehelka's alleged financiers are not treated in an "unfair" or "unjust" manner. These claims are made in an upcoming autobiography written by Jaya Jaitly, titled, "Life among the Scorpions: Memoirs of a Woman in Indian Politics." The book releases today. Jaitley has presented a copy of the letter in the book. It also has a two page letter from the First Global, the alleged financiers of Tehelka, petitioning Sonia Gandhi, the then chairperson of the National Advisory Council. She also claims that the Congress, which was then in Opposition, was the ultimate beneficiary of the sting by Tehelka, which allegedly received hawala funds. She also writes that she had met with alleged arms middleman Christian Michel, and how he bragged about helping Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to spy on Sonia Gandhi.
