A short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the controversial AgustaWestland chopper deal ran for over five hours on Wednesday as the BJP and the Congress slugged it out.
With the Congress alleging that the BJP and its Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, were out to malign the image of their political opponents (read the Gandhis) by levelling baseless allegations at them, the schism between the ruling party and the main Opposition party widened.
Soon after Parrikar’s reply, in which he said the CBI investigation will bring out the truth on the issue, Congress members walked out of the House, saying that the Minister was silent on their demand that the investigation be monitored by the Supreme Court.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu countered by asking: “Why didn’t they (the Congress) ask the Supreme Court to monitor the probe? It was the UPA that had asked the CBI to investigate the matter.”
In his reply, Parrikar said that the investigating agencies will take the Italian Court’s ruling on the issue seriously.
“The central matter is that of corrupt practices. Hence the main action required is to trace, detect and unmask the means of these corrupt practices and bribery through a thorough enquiry by the investigating agencies. Given this background, this enquiry will of necessity focus on the roles of those named in the judgment of the Italian court… It appears an “invisible hand” was guiding the action or inaction of CBI and ED,” said the Defence Minister.
The Italian court, according to reports, has named Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi and his family members in the verdict.
Congress counterEarlier, former Defence Minister AK Antony and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel led the Opposition charge.
Claiming that he had objected to the deal and given consent only after the Air Force demanded more VVIP choppers, Antony said the investigation into the matter was started by him. “You have to speed up the process. Don’t blackmail or threaten people,” he said and urged the Centre to quickly complete the probe.
In an emotional speech, Patel said he had entered public life not to indulge in corruption. “If anyone proves any wrongdoing by me, I will quit public life and the Rajya Sabha. There should be a thorough investigation carried out into this deal and the guilty should be punished. Bring the truth out... I repeat again, if you can find an iota of truth against me, I will quit public life and resign from this House,” he said.
Bhupender Yadav, who initiated the discussion, said: “One of the countries has taken action against the people who had paid bribes; we should take action against the people who took them, no matter which political party they belong to.”
Quoting the Italian judgment, BJP’s Subramanian Swamy said that a bribe of €30 million was paid, out of which €6 million went to IAF personnel, €8.4 million to bureaucrats and ₹125 crore to one ‘AP’ in the deal.