UPA violated rules in favour of VVIP helicopter deal: BJP
NEW DELHI: The BJP has alleged that during UPA regime, rules were violated to favour AgustaWestland in VVIP chopper deal.Briefing media in New Delhi, party spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao alleged that the helicopter scam was fixed from Day One with AgustaWestland, in collusion with brokers and middlemen.
He said the Congress party stands exposed with the revelations made in the Italian Court. The spokesperson said Congress should come out with the truth before the nation.Meanwhile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said UPA must answer who received kickbacks in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal.
Briefing media, the Minister said the main question is who received the bribe. He said Italian High Court equivalent had clearly said that political corruption was 15.8 million euros, which amounts to 125 crore rupees.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley disputed the statement of former Defence Minister A K Antony that the UPA regime had blacklisted AugustaWestland Finmeccanica after the bribe issue came out on the chopper deal.
He was interacting with the audience in Thiruvananthapuram after releasing the NDA vision document for the May 16 Kerala assembly polls.Targeting Antony, he said the statement given by him to the party suffers from a misnomer as much as its mentions that the company was blacklisted by the UPA regime and that it was lifted by the NDA.
On the other hand, Congress has accused BJP of lying and misleading people in the AgustaWestland deal scam.Briefing media in New Delhi, party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked why NDA government gave protection to AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica for the last two years. He said smear campaigns by BJP cannot cover up the fact that BJP helped AgustaWestland.
