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Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 8
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday dismissed a media report on the Rafale deal.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha following ruckus in the House after the latest Rafale controversy, she said every question on the issue was over and done with.
Referring to the media report, she said if the newspaper wanted to bring out the truth, it should also have told what the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said on the issue. “It was the newspaper’s duty to put the reply in the paper,” she said.
Sitharaman said she had already replied on this issue.
The Defence Minister said if the PM enquired about a deal it should not be misconstrued as interference.
This after Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge led the attack in the House on the issue quoting the latest Rafale report and reiterated the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.
The Defence Minister countered Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s charges and attempt to nail Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Giving the government’s side of the story, Sitharaman dismissed the report about the PM’s “interference” on the issue. Claiming no interference by the PM, Sitharaman called the report “motivated”. “If the newspaper had bothered to bring out the truth, it should have put Parrikar’s reply,” she said.
“When the PM periodically enquires about the progress of a project it should not be considered interference. This kind of selective journalism is absolutely uncalled for,” she said, speaking to the media outside the Lok Sabha.
“Was Sonia Gandhi also running a parallel government sitting in the National Advisory Council,” she wondered, also attacking Rahul for “his charges against the PM” yet again and for “trying to incite Air Force officers against the government”.
“Rahul Gandhi is trying to incite Air Force, Army officers. This is shocking,” she said.