Nirmala Sitharaman joined the BJP in 2008 and has served as a spokesperson for the party. In 2014, she was inducted into Narendra Modi's cabinet as a junior minister and in June 2014, she elected as a Rajya Sabha Member from Andhra Pradesh. In May 2016, she was one of the 12 candidates nominated by the BJP to contest the Rajya Sabha elections due on 11 June 2016. She successfully contested her seat from Karnataka. On 3 September 2017, she was elevated to Defence Minister. After Narendra Modi was re-elected in 2019 she became the first full time woman after Indira Gandhi to hold the Finance Minister post.
Read More
The BJP and the Congress have been engaged in a bitter duel on the purchase of the Rafale fighter aircraft from France, with the latter alleging inflated prices and kickbacks and the former defending it as one conforming to rules.
"Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign," he said.
Two days after Sitharaman made the claims in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Gandhi took to Twitter to question her claims, tagging a media report that said "no actual order has been placed".
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera levelled the allegation at a press conference held at the party's headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday, a day after Sitharaman rebutted the Congress' charges on the deal, and accused the rival party of spreading "falsehood" on the issue.
Goyal has been given the responsibility for Puducherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Congress has alleged irregularities in the deal for 36 aircraft and claimed that the Narendra Modi government is buying them at a price much higher than the one that was being negotiated by the previous government.
She accused the Congress of compromising with national security in the interest of the party's "treasury" while deciding on buying 126 fighter jets.
This country needs to know that defence purchases are national security related and very important, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while speaking during debate on Rafale jet deal in Lok Sabha.
Hitting out at the Gandhi family for alleging corruption in the defence contract, she said that they showed "amazing audacity" by not listening to the Supreme Court's verdict in the case.
Sitharaman’s statement came after the the Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the 36 Rafale fighter jets deal with French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is currently on a five-day maiden trip to the US.
The two countries want to take their defence cooperation to the next level.
India is procuring two stealth frigates at a cost of USD 1 billion and both the ships will be equipped with indigenously developed BrahMos missiles.
During a press conference in Bhopal, a reporter asked her as to why the NDA government was 'tom-tomming' the operation two years later.
The BJP leader was replying to a query about Gandhi making the controversial deal a big issue in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections.
She also lauded it for its multiple successful search and rescue missions, humanitarian aid, assistance to fishermen and increased surveillance capability.
The tracked, self-propelled K9 Vajra, with a maximum range of 28-38 km, is capable of firing three rounds in 30 seconds in the ‘burst' mode, 15 rounds in three minutes in the ‘intense' mode and 60 rounds in 60 minutes in the ‘sustained' mode.
During the trip, she will be briefed about the defence preparedness and infrastructure improvements by the Army in the region.
The members of the GoM are Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, a home ministry official said.
Top News
Trending News
Latest News
