Naidu said his party was not averse to the probe covering

the period when BJP helmed the Central government. Jaswant Singh, former Defence Minister in the NDA government, had yesterday admitted that parameters for purchase of these helicopters, that made Augusta Westland eligible to participate in the bidding process, were changed on the directions of the then National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra but defended the decision saying it was done to avoid a single-vendor situation. Naidu said BJP would corner the government over the chopper deal in the coming Parliament session. Replying to a query, he said Italian connections in the deal needed to be probed. "Italian connections have to be probed. Natural doubts are arising in the minds of the people. I do not want to name any individual without having direct proof. "But, my point is why the government kept quiet from 2011 to now, after Prakash Javadekar raised the issue in Parliament and also wrote a letter to Defence Minister. The minister told that they will conduct an inquiry. Two years have passed and the government did not act. Why? Who compelled the government not to act?" he said. All aspects of the deal, like who signed the contract, who were the middlemen and what were their connections, needed to be looked into, he said. In New Delhi, BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi demanded that a Supreme Court monitored probe should be ordered in the scam. "Congress has become an institution of strong middlemen. From coal to copter, there have been exposes of serious kickbacks, corruption and scams," Naqvi said. He alleged that several scams have been reported in the defence sector itself. "There are question marks over the submarine deal, the Tatra trucks, Czech pistol issue is still unresolved and now we have the helicopter scam," Naqvi said. He charged that in all these scams the government and the Congress has been seen defending the "real culprits". "There should be a probe into the helicopter deal which should be monitored by the Supreme Court. Instead of engaging in a whitewash, the government should clarify what role it has played in the scam. The names which have surfaced in the scam have deep relations with the Congress," Naqvi said.