Alexandre Cabanel paintings

select audience was treated to a four-hour documentary film on Tuesday showing top politicians, retired and serving generals and middle-men carry out a US$870,000 deal to sell night vision devices to the Indian Army by paying off the elite in the capital's corridors of power. "Our job was to blow the whistle on corruption in India's defense procurement. We wanted to nail them down," says Tarun J Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka.com. Commissions in defense deals are outlawed in India and conviction carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison. Laxman admits receiving $2,175, but says the money was given to the BJP's party fund, and that he was within his rights to accept a donation. Laxman, the first dalit (untouchable) president of the BJP, is credited with attempts to project a new face of the BJP focussing on minorities. He told the prime minister