Asked about Singh's remarks, party spokesperson Nirmala

Sitharaman said, "Tyagi definitely has a lot of answer. He can't escape answering these questions. If there are others involved in the scam, they also have to be questioned." Singh's comments assume significance in the context of high-decibel attack launched by his party against the government, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi over the scam. "I am pained that the guilty here is the Italian company. It seems that we have forgotten them," Singh said. Singh, who was the Defence Minister in 2001, admitted that the tender specifications were changed during NDA rule. "Yes, what he has said is true," Singh said when asked to comment on remarks by Tyagi that the specifications in the tender were changed in 2003 during the NDA rule when George Fernandes was the Defence Minister. Italian prosecutors have contended that the specifications were altered to make AgustaWestland's helicopters eligible in the contract for the 12 VVIP helicopter deal. Among the changes made were the reduction in the altitude from 19000 ft to 15000 ft. "I don't see why there is so much of excitement about changing the parameters. There was a plausible and good reason for the change that was to be brought about. "The original proposal for the VVIP helicopter emerged in the year 2000 and one of the criterion in that was that the helicopter for VIP movement ought to be able to go up to 18,000 feet. "When this came to the Prime Minister's office and it came back to the Cabinet Committee on Security, then it was found that to have a single vendor proposal would be improper." (More)