The Rafale deal continued dominate proceedings in Lok Sabha on Monday when Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman placed a fresh statement about the status of government contracts given Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Her statement came after Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday tweeted that the Defence Minister was "lying" in the Lok Sabha referring to her claim that the Modi government was giving contracts worth Rs.1 lakh crore to the HAL.
In the fresh statement, Ms Sitharaman claimed that contracts worth over Rs. 26,000 crore have been signed, another Rs. 73,000 crore are in the pipeline.
Objecting to the fresh statement, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said it is a "correction" statement and read out a news report that said, for the first time in 20 years, the Bengaluru-based public sector undertaking was "forced" to borrow Rs. 1,000 crore to pay salaries.
Samajwadi Party MP Dharmendra Yadav also raised the issue of "how the Centre used the CBI immediately" after the party chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP president Mayawati met in Lucknow last Saturday to finalise the electoral alliance between the two parties. "The Centre is misusing the CBI to arm twist political opponent,"Mr Yadav said.
Even as the Zero Hour proceedings — when MPs are allowed to raise any issue — Opposition members could be heard shouting slogans against what they called the misuse of the CBI.
Just before Ms. Sitharaman placed the statement, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan named three AIADMK and a TDP member for disturbing the proceedings.
