Reports about Pawar giving 'clean chit' to Modi 'false and unfounded': Cong

The Congress Friday dubbed media reports about NCP chief Sharad Pawar giving "clean chit" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal as "false and unfounded", and claimed it was a conspiracy to create a rift between the two parties.

The remarks by Pawar led to NCP leader and MP Tariq Anwar quitting the party.

According to Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, Pawar clarified to Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge that he had not made any such statement as the NCP favoured the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the deal.

Surjewala said the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief held detailed discussion with Kharge and made it clear that "this is untrue and unfounded".

"It is a conspiracy being hatched to create a rift between the parties," he told reporters.

In an interview to a Marathi news channel earlier this week, Pawar said that he didn't think that people have doubts about Modi's intentions in the Rafale deal.

Later, the NCP clarified that Pawar had not given any clean chit to Modi on the Rafale issue, and reiterated its demands that the central government disclose the price of the fighter jets and order a JPC probe.

"Pawar-ji also expressed surprise that those who hatched the Bofors conspiracy on one false statement, why they are fearing from giving a reply on the price of Rafale aircraft and the JPC is the only answer to it," Surjewala said.

NCP supremo's daughter Supriya Sule took to Twitter and said, "It's disappointing that people have not heard Sharad Pawar Saheb where he has clearly raised three questions: what is the justification for a 300 per cent price increase from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,670 crore which potentially could be a significant loss to the exchequer?"