London: It may be a case of history repeating itself as the defence company at the heart of Parliamentary queries over Britain’s involvement in Operation Bluestar is none other than AgustaWestland, which recently lost out on a lucrative contract to supply helicopters to India over allegations of corruption.
Britain’s Opposition Labour MP Tom Watson, responsible for publicising recently declassified documents that imply British collusion in planning Operation Bluestar 30 years ago, asked British Prime Minister David Cameron to directly question the ministers in charge at the time under former PM Margaret Thatcher if help was offered to India in order to secure a helicopter deal for the firm.
“On his Amritsar inquiry, instead of ordering the civil servant to investigate, why does the PM not just ask Lords Geoffrey Howe and Leon Brittan what they agreed with Margaret Thatcher and whether it had anything to do with the Agusta copter deal at the time,” Watson said in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Cameron dismissed any link with defence deals as a “conspiracy theory”.
