The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday sought to put the Congress on the mat with some searing questions to former Defence Minister and Congress leader A.K. Antony on the defence deal – inked and terminated midway through following graft allegations during the UPA rule at the Centre – to procure Italian AgustaWestland helicopters for VVIP transport.
Raising the pitch against the Congress on the deal was Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, who wanted Mr. Antony to explain the forces that drove the deal, which was inked in 2010 — a good three years after S.P. Tyagi, being questioned in this connection, demitted office as chief of the Indian Air Force.
Mr. Antony was also asked to clarify why the QR (quality requirement) specifications were altered to make it a single-vendor situation.
Why no field trials?
“Further, for a helicopter that was to fly in India, why were the field trials not held within the country? In February, 2013, Mr. Antony conceded that corruption has indeed taken place in the deal and ordered a CBI inquiry. But he did not do it own his own. It was done after Finmeccanica chief Giuseppe Orsi was arrested in Italy,” maintained Mr. Prasad.
“If bribe givers were eventually convicted in Italy, why was no action taken against bribe takers,” he asked, contending that even the questioning of former NSA M.K. Narayanan and former SPG chief B.V. Wanchoo in connection with the case was done after the present government took over.
Attacks Congress
Scathingly attacking the Congress for widespread corruption, he said the party had always dubbed free and fair investigation into any graft case, be it the Bofors scam or the AgustaWestland case, as anti-national and anti-democratic. Mr. Prasad sought to scoff at the Congress-Left electoral understanding in West Bengal and their rivalry in Kerala saying he was amazed to see the ‘mock fight’.
“They should explain the rationale behind this ‘Bengal mein dosti, Kerala mein kusti’ [friendship in Bengal and bout in Kerala].”
He demanded a free and fair investigation into the rape and murder of a law student in Perumbavoor and reiterated the Union Cabinet’s stance that the Centre was willing to support if the State government demanded a CBI probe.
