The Congress on Tuesday dismissed the allegations levelled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the VVIP chopper deal, saying the first inquiry into the scandal was in fact carried out during the previous UPA government's regime.
"We blacklisted the company as we got to know about it. The CBI probe was done by our government and blacklisting the company was also done by UPA," said Congress leader and former defence minister AK Antony.
Hitting back at the BJP-led NDA government, he said, "The present government just has to complete the CBI inquiry. We are requesting the government to complete the incomplete work and tell us who the culprits are, and punish them."
Earlier on Tuesday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had raked up the AgustaWestland issue, saying it had "exposed Congress and proved that the party was all about scams". He also sought an answer from the opposition party.
The BJP had raised the issue in Lok Sabha on Monday as well following an Italian court's reported observation that the UPA government showed "substantial disregard" in arriving at the full truth behind the multi-crore scam.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Meenakshi Lekhi had said that the observations of the Italian court that found corruption in the Rs 3,565-crore AgustaWestland deal were serious.
Seeking a statement from the Defence Ministry, she said Italy had requested India in April 2013 to get full documentation in the case but was provided with only three documents and that too in 2014.
She wanted a thorough probe into the matter as also a discussion in the House.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu assured the member that he would bring the matter to the notice of the Defence Minister.
(With PTI Inputs)
Comments
0 comment