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IANS
New Delhi
FIRING a fresh salvo against the Modi government over the Rafale deal, the Congress on Thursday accused Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of"lying"again"about the number of the France-built jets and demanded her and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to submit to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe.
"Defence Minister is caught lying again on the number of fighter aircraft required by Indian Air Force (IAF),"Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told the media."Her claim that IAF does not have the infrastructure like parking place, maintenance facility to fly 126 Fighter aircraft is preposterous and goes against the grain of national security requirements,"he said.
He said Modi's decision to"arbitrarily"reduce requirement of 126 fighter aircraft to 36 was"unexplainable". His remarks were in reference to Sitharaman's interview to a national daily wherein she has said that the"government chose to procure only 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France in 2015, instead of the 126 being negotiated by the previous government, as infrastructure and other technical requirements of the IAF do not allow greater induction".
