Modi's only aim to fix Congress leadership: Jairam Ramesh

The Congress on Thursday accused the BJP-led government of having "just one agenda to fix the Congress leadership in the AgustaWestland bribery case".

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has only one mission and that is to fix the Congress leadership in the AgustaWestland bribery case," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference in Parliament House.

Terming the entire AgustaWestland episode as a "conspiracy against the Congress", Ramesh said Modi was directly involved in it.

"Modi is involved in it, he wants to fix them," he said, adding that it would not happen as there was no truth in the allegations being levelled gainst Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Ramesh said Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar gave a "pathetic" reply to a discussion on the issue in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

"The defence minister replied in a pathetic manner to the debate. He just levelled allegations, and did not reply to queries and questions on various issues related to the controversy.

"The fact that his reply to the debate on AgustaWestland was appreciated by the prime minister makes it clear what Modi was up to," he said.

The Congress leader also touched upon the issue of BJP member Subramanian Swamy not authenticating the papers he read out in the Rajya Sabha during the debate in the AgustaWestland case.

"Our leader Abhishek Singhvi immediately authenticated all the documents he used during discussion on the AgustaWestland case in the house but Subramanian Swamy, even after 24 hours have passed, was yet to authenticate his papers," he said.

He called him "Swamy of lies".

Ramesh also said that since Modi wants to fix Congress leaders in the bribery case, the party's faith on government agencies has weakened, and that was why they wanted a Supreme Court-monitored probe in the matter.

--IANS

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