New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will make a statement in the Rajya Sabha today on the AgustaWestland chopper scam. He will place all facts along with the detailed chronology about the controversial deal before the Rajya Sabha at 2 PM in a short duration debate.
Yesterday, he had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue. The Defence Minister had said that his Parliament address would include how and when necessary clauses or provisions were relaxed to suit the company.
Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, had earlier on Monday accused the Centre of pursuing a politically motivated campaign to defame the grand old party through the AgustaWestland copter scam.
Senior Congress leaders also met party president Sonia Gandhi at her residence yesterday evening to chalk out strategy how to counter BJP in Parliament on AgustaWestland issue.
For the BJP, new Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy will lead the discussion along with Bhupendra Yadav. The Congress is expected to field Abhishek Singhvi, Anand Sharma and former defence minister AK Antony.
Congress leaders, including Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh, are mentioned by name in documents that an Italian court used to conclude last month that bribes of up to 30 million euros were paid in India for the deal for 12 helicopters.
BJP has also attacked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi demanding that he explain how Guido Haschke, a middleman in the Agusta deal served as a Director in 2009 for real estate developer Emaar-MGF, promoted by the family of Gandhi's close aide Kanishka Singh.
The Agusta deal was signed in 2010 and was cancelled in 2014, after the allegations of corruption surfaced.
Meanwhile, the CBI has questioned former Air chief SP Tyagi in connection with alleged irregularities in the Rs 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal. The investigating agency had earlier on Saturday quizzed former IAF deputy chief JS Gujral in connection with this case.
Both Tyagi and Gujral were questioned at length in 2013, but the fresh round of questioning was necessitated after recent order of an Italian Court which indicated corruption in the deal.
