Nirmala Sitharaman's allegations are completely false, says A K Antony

New Delhi: Hitting back at the Congress, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed on Tuesday that the NDA government had got the Rafale fighter jets at a nine per cent cheaper rate than what the UPA had done earlier. Mr Antony again reiterated the Congress’ demand to set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Rafale deal. “Since there is a growing perception that the (Narendra) Modi government’s Rafale purchase deal has more skeletons in its closet, let there be a joint parliamentary probe to bring out the truth,” Mr Antony said.

He added, “In the JPC, the present government has got a majority. Why are they afraid? Let the JPC go through all the files. The JPC can call files, a JPC that has a majority of persons from the government... can look through all the files and come out with the truth.”

Rejecting the charge levelled by Ms Sitharaman that an unprecedented intervention by him in 2013 had put the “final nail in the coffin” when the cost negotiation committee was giving the final touches to the deal, he said this was completely false. “Her allegations are completely false and she is deliberately suppressing the facts,” Mr Antony said.