By IANS,
New Delhi : By unnecessarily dragging the National Democratic Alliance into the $750-million VVIP chopper deal, the Congress-led government aims at diverting attention from the real issue, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Friday.
“First, they deny the existence of a scam; then they try to evade an answer. They try not to have an inquiry, their mission is to cover up and deflect attention to some other issue,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar told reporters here.
The Congress had stated that the chopper deal process was initiated during the NDA government’s term, though it culminated under the United Progressive Alliance government.
“The issue is not about changing technical specifications (of the chopper) but the fact that kickbacks were received,” Javadekar said.
“It was the Italian government which ordered a probe while the Indian government refused to do so,” he added.
Javadekar blamed the defence ministry. “They (government) said that the defence ministry conducted an internal enquiry and found nothing wrong. What are the details and findings of that report? We want to know”.
The BJP spokesman listed six questions for the government: “Who gave the contract for the helicopters; who received kickbacks; according to the charge sheet submitted to the Italian court, Rs.200 crore was paid to a particular family. Which one; what is the relation of the kingpin of this scam with the director of Emaar-MGF, who was involved in the CWG scam; what is known about the company IDS India, reported to have received more than Rs.100 crore; has the government sent Letters Rogatory for information?”
Speaking about the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the bribery charges, the BJP said that the investigations should be monitored by the Supreme Court or be carried out by a Special Investigative Team appointed by the court.