Image: DNA India
The BJP has made it clear that it will fix on Sonia Gandhi over reported fraudulence in a pact to buy 12 helicopters for the use by top politicians. Her party, Congress, on the other hand, has decided to requite with parallel aggression.
“I have done nothing wrong. The government is there for two years, an inquiry is there. Why don’t they complete it as early as possible…and impartially?” asked Mrs Gandhi, on Wednesday, after the scandal was top tier of parliament’s agenda today.
“Let them hang me if there is an iota of evidence,” said Ahmed Patel, he aide, who, like Mrs Gandhi, has been fingered in documents that were reviewed by Milan, an Italian court before it decided bribes had been paid to Indians.
In February 2010, India had sealed a deal with AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian defence conglomerate Finmeccanica, for 12 AW-101 VVIP helicopters. It beat off competition from US rival Sikorsky to win the contract. Its top officials were probed of double-dealing in Italy.
It reportedly paid more than Rs. 375 crore as a bribe to keep taut the Rs. 3,727 crore contract to allocate 12 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad raised certain questions: “Now that the bribe-givers have been convicted, what should happen to bribe-takers? Will Mr AK Antony publically give a statement? Will he accept his partymen are involved in the scandal?”
AK Antony was the Union Defence Minister of the UPA government when the deal was locked in February 2010.
– By Isha Kulkarni with inputs from NDTV and Hindustan Times
Tags: agustawestland BJP Sonia Gandhi
