Take strongest action against corrupt: Congress

Asking the BJP-led Central government to stop threatening and blackmailing the Congress on the AgustaWestland VVIP copter bribery case, the party on Wednesday challenged the Modi government to “take strongest action” against those offered bribe as it has been “proved beyond doubts” that corruption did take place in the case. Congress’s Abhishek Singhvi responded point-by-point to allegations of wrondoings against his party’s top leadership by the ruling BJP. The Congress also joined the other Opposition parties, including the BSP and the Left in the Rajya Sabha, demanding a SC-monitored enquiry into the case. Later, the Congress staged a walkout from the House after the government rejected an apex court-monitored probe, which was initially asked by BSP’s Mayawati.

The House also saw angry scenes after BJP’s Subramaniam Swamy said that those named in a note written by one of the alleged middleman should be questioned by the CBI and if necessary it should be taken in custody.

The Congress reacted, saying, Dr Swamy should authenticate the document he was reading from after he alleged that a bribe of 30 million euros was paid, out of which 6 million euros went to IAF personnel, 8.4 million euros to bureaucrats and Rs 125 crore to “AP”. Dr Swamy said he was citing from the same document from which Mr Singhvi had cited from.

Under attack, Congress president’s political secretary, Ahmed Patel, demanded a thorough probe into the deal and declared that he will quit the Upper House as well as public life if any allegation against him is proved.

Earlier, BJP’s Bhupendra Yadav initiated the debate when he claimed that the former UPA government modified norms to benefit AgustaWestland to bag the contract. He said it was a “serious” matter that several decades after independence, transparency in defence deals has not been ushered in. He said norms were repeatedly modified, even after over-ruling reservations expressed by Mr Antony and Mr Manmohan Singh and said the “real culprits” needs to be punished.

Slamming the government over the AgustaWestland row, Mr Singhvi said it was trying to “villify the head of a political party” on the basis of mere “insinuation and innuendo” and was attempting to cover up for “disillusionment” with its misgovernance. He also attributed “innuendos” against its leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi or Ahmed Patel to BJP’s “visceral hatred” against them. The Congress member also alleged that the ruling party’s interest appears to be to keep the pot boiling and “not to reach a conclusion and keep finger pointing.”

Ridiculing BJP’s attempt to link certain initials like “CP, VP and AP” to the deal, Mr Singhvi cited the Hawala case in which an initial ‘LKA’ had featured and the High Court had said the presence of initials constituted no evidence.

He said it was “hypocrisy” of the ruling party in applying “double standards” as leader of the House Arun Jaitley had in the Hawala case argued initials have no evidentiary value. He said that ‘AP’ could stand for many people including the present Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The Congress leader said not a single allegation that was being touted was part of CBI or ED findings.

“We are relying on the interpretations and misrepresentations of an Italian court,” he said adding the official translation of the judgement is still not available. He also said that Guido Haschke, one of the alleged middlemen, had said that he does not know what the initial ‘AP’ stands for.

Mr Singhvi said the Modi government was trying to “foist corruption charges against those not involved” but also said that his party was not claiming “everything is hunky dory” with regard to the deal.