Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today challenged the Congress to show the UPA government order blacklisting the Anglo-Italian helicopter maker AgustaWestland in connection with the VVIP chopper scam.
Parrikar, who said that he will speak in detail in Parliament on the issue in the near future, informed that the Ministry has received a copy of the Italian court order and is in the process of translating it into English.
He said that the process might take 8-10 days.
Parrikar also took a dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying translation from Italian was not easy, "at least for the ruling side. May not be a difficult task for the opposition".
A combative Parrikar hit back when asked about Congress' allegation that while UPA had blacklisted the company, the NDA government removed it from the blacklist.
"When did they blacklist? Ask them first. Ask them what date the order was issued? Show me the copy of the order," the Minister said.
Asked if he meant that the firm was never blacklisted, he said, "I am not saying that".
Interestingly, in a written reply to Rajya Sabha on February 5, 2014, the then Defence Minister A K Antony, while giving details on AgustaWestland, had said, "No decision has been taken till date to debar the said company".
This runs contrary to what the Congress has been claiming because the reply came just months ahead of the regime change.
However, records of state-run HAL show that Agusta Westland International Ltd, UK, Finmeccanica, Italy and its group of companies, including subsidiaries and affiliates, IDS Tunisia and Infotech Design System (IDS), Mauritius, were blacklisted on July 3, 2014, when NDA was in power, because of the CBI case against them to inquire into alleged criminal wrongdoing in the procurement of VVIP Helicopters.
Hitting back at BJP on the VVIP chopper deal, Congress had yesterday alleged that AgustaWestland was "removed" from the blacklisted category by the Modi dispensation.
Congress leader and former Union Minister Anand Sharma had said, "The chopper deal was scrapped. Action was taken by the UPA government. A K Antony, the then Defence Minister, had made a statement in Parliament and Agusta Westland was blacklisted.
Parrikar said he will not buy an equipment simply because
someone he knows has recommended and nor will he reject something because someone has batted for it.
"Obviously, if it is a good product and price is good, I will consider it. That is why I had the courage to say Bofors is a good gun. Corruption in it was bad. People who did corruption should be punished, not the guns," he said.
He also lamented that the Ministry had not purchased a single artillery gun after Bofors controversy and he had to push for the same as it was stuck for over three decades.
Parrikar also questioned why the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas took 32 years.
"The test flight of the aircraft took place in Vajpayee's tenure in 2001. After that, during 10 years of UPA government, how many meetings did defence minister conduct to ensure that LCA goes into production and is inducted into Air Force? I did it. I did about 18 meetings on this issue. I pushed them both together. Asked Aeronautical Development Agency and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited to do what is required and asked IAF not be unreasonable," he said.
Asked about murmurs that government has evidence against journalists in the VVIP chopper scam, he asked, "Who said we have evidence? I am not saying there is no evidence but evidence required in such matters need to be conclusive. Let them (investigating agencies) link. Sometime you get evidence but it cannot be linked in a particular manner. Let them do their job. They are trying to crack open the money trail. It is not easy," he said.
Parrikar said there are many people whose tickets for foreign travel was booked through middleman Christian Michel.
"It has to show that it was done for a particular reason. Let us assume, there is an air show and someone sends tickets. This cannot be proved as corruption. Many a times, when marriages are held in Goa, the host sends air tickets to guests. But this is not corruption. Because he wants them to come there but if it happens too often, and for too many times, then it can definitely be a special favour. Then it starts going into the zone of corruption," he said.
Parrikar stressed that the investigative agencies have been given a free hand. "The job of the political class is to ensure that officers should be allowed to function free. To see they are not pressurised," he said.
Talking about his tenure as Defence Minister, he said the journey so far had been good.
"File movement has started. Decision-making on directions(are happening). They do not fear even giving a negative opinion also," he said.
Talking about specifics, he said a lot of positive changes have taken place in welfare of ex-servicemen besides armed forces involved in field operations getting a "morale boost".
