Firing a fresh salvo at Sonia Gandhi over the VVIP chopper scam, Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday claimed the then Defence Minister A K Antony had objected to relaxations extended to AgustaWestland regarding field trials but was “overridden”, and suggested that the Congress chief was behind it. BJP is in power and it is the government’s responsibility to carry out investigation and arrest the culprits. He said that the Congress is fully exposed in this scam, the Congress will have to face questions from the public on this issue, this issue is not going to ask them to keep quiet. Even as a Chief Minister, Modi used to routinely hit out at “Sonia Behen” and “Rahul Baba” for “bringing disrepute to Gujarat”, in his election campaigns.
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Kurien said he was expunging the reference to the Constitution of another country but that did not satisfy the Congress members who continued to shout slogans against Swamy.
Pitched battles have been raging both inside and outside the parliament in the past week with BJP targeting Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders over the 2010 chopper deal that was later scrapped as false practices came to light. “I just want to ask who was in power then?”
Prasad asked Sonia “to please explain who were the bribe takers because all the decisions, manipulations in tenders were done when the UPA government was there”.
Asked by the chair about the goal of his standing, Swamy said he has given a notice under Rule 167 to discuss the AgustaWestland issue. “They are conspiring against the Congress and its leadership, but truth will prevail as empty vessels make more noise”, he told ANI. “The bribe giver has been convicted and now bribe taker has to be identified”, Jaitley said, adding that the written admission by the alleged middle man has to be examined.
“The MoD put on hold until further orders all procurement and acquisitions in the pipeline with M/S AgustaWestland International Ltd UK & M/S Finmeccanica, Italy and its group of companies including subsidiaries and affiliates, ” sources said.
Azad said the Congress-led UPA government had in 2013 cancelled the deal when wrongdoings were reported and had directed the CBI and ED to investigate corruption charges.
Worth mentioning, the opposition Congress Party is facing a tough time these days over the Rs 3600 Cr AW101 helicopter deal with Italian company AugustaWestland in February 2010.
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With the protests continuing, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi twice went up to Swamy to convey something.
