Nirmala Sitharaman presser: Launching a scathing attack on the Congress over the Devas-Antrix issue, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the Supreme Court order has just put a stamp on it. She also accused the Congress-led UPA of entering into a "fraud" and "scandalous" deal with Devas Multimedia by allocating the S-band spectrum used by the defence for "pittance". Supreme Court on January 17 has comprehensively upheld liquidation of Devas Multimedia on grounds that it was incorporated with fraudulent intentions.
At a press conference, she said the government is now fighting in every court to save taxpayers' money that would otherwise go towards paying for arbitration awards that Devas has won against the cancellation of the 2005 deal.
HERE ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF HER PRESSER:
- I would like to talk on the Supreme Court judgment on Devas-Antrix issue. SC has given a comprehensive order. UPA got cancelled this deal in 2011. It was a fraud deal.
- Antrix appeared in agreement with Devas in 2005 during the UPA govt. It was a fraud deal. UPA govt cancelled this deal in 2011
- "It's a fraud of the Congress, for the Congress and by the Congress
- Master game players in this are the Congress & with this SC order we're able to see that...Now it should be Congress' turn to answer how cabinet was kept in dark. They should have no moral right to speak about crony capitalism
- In 2011, when the whole thing was cancelled, Devas went to international arbitration, Govt of India never appointed an arbitrator, was reminded to appoint arbitrator within 21 days, but govt didn't appoint
- This kind of selling of primary endowments like wavelengths, satellites or spectrum band, giving it away to private parties and making money from private parties & making a deal out if it marks the feature of the Congress governments.
ALSO READ: Opinion | Antrix-Devas deal: An ‘experiment in corruption’ that failed
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