JOIN USBreach of privilege notice against Modi, Sitharaman
The Congress on Tuesday submitted notices to move breach of privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha for "misleading" the House on the purchase price of Rafale fighter jets.
Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, K V Thomas, M Veerappa Moily, Jyotiraditya Scinda and Rajeev Satav submitted letters to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan contending that the Modi and Nirmala had "deliberately misled" on the Rafale deal during the debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
"The prime minister has along with the defence minister deliberately mislead the House, it is, therefore, requested that this notice of breach of privilege be accepted and referred to the privilege committee for further proceedings," read the letter submitted by the Congress leaders to the Speaker.
Keeping up the heat on the Modi government, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi of personally re-negotiating the Rafale deal with the French government.
"Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French," Rahul said on Twitter, lashing out at him for silence on the issue.
"India has had 4 'RAFALE Mantris'. But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he won’t speak," he said.
Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, Thomas demanded setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to probe the allegations in the Rafale deal.
In a letter to the Speaker against Nirmala's statement in the Lok Sabha, the Congress leaders said that the defence minister had claimed that the commercial cost of the Rafale jet fighter cannot be revealed due to the confidentiality agreement signed between India and France in 2008.
"The minister has knowingly and intentionally misled Parliament by withholding the information that the government is obliged to reveal to the House," they said.