BJP today termed as a "shocking development" the government's decision to allow a joint venture between Tata Sons and AgustaWestland, which has been issued a show cause notice by the Defence Ministry for violating contractual obligations of the VVIP chopper deal.
"In a shocking development the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in its meeting on September 19, 2013 approved the proposal of Indian Rotorcraft, a joint venture between Tata Sons (74 per cent) and AgustaWestland (26 per cent)," BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said.
Taking strong objection to the government's move, BJP said the FIPB approval has to be seen in the light of chopper scam.
"In fact, this company should have been blacklisted and all deals be scrapped till the probe gets over, but the UPA is acting to the contrary. The Tata-AgustaWestland deal not only affects the investigations but legitimises a rogue company," Lekhi said.
BJP maintained that this decision has come when the defence ministry has issued a final show cause notice to AgustaWestland for violating the terms of the contract and the pre-integrity pact for procurement of 12 VVIP choppers.
The Attorney General has also given this opinion and the chopper contract has already been frozen.
"There was no reason to approve Tata-AgustaWestland deal. Congress must explain its personal interest in getting this done. The FIPB conduct must be probed in the light of the chequered history of AgustaWestland," Lekhi said.
