NEW DELHI: Taking a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s politically charged replies in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday charged the Congress of manufacturing allegations to compromise national security in his bid to counter the Opposition demands for details of the Rafale deal.
Jaitley brought forth 15 incidents in the past when previous Defence Ministers had refused to divulge financial details of defence purchase, while suggesting “Congress president to tale lessons from (former President) Pranab Mukherjee”.
“Since the Opposition party found that Mr Modi has been running a clean government for over three years, the ploy now is to manufacture allegations to defame the government. I’ve not less than 15 incidents of the past with me when previous defence ministers, including Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony, refused to divulge financial details of defence purchases on grounds that they are classified information,” Jaitley said while replying to a two-day long debate in the House.
The finance minister argued that divulging financial details of defence purchases would lead to giving out specifics of defence equipments, which would benefit the enemies.
“On December 14, 2005, Mukherjee as defence minister had refused to give financial details of defence purchases from the US, saying they are classified. On August 22, 2007, Antony as defence minister, while rejecting demands for financial details on defence purchases from Israel, had said in the House that sharing details will not be in public interest,” Jaitley added.
The minister then asked the Opposition MPs that they should ask “the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi) and get lessons (on defence purchases) from Pranab Mukherjee”.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor countered that the Opposition party is not asking for specific details but overall financial cost of acquisition of Rafale jets. The Congress president asked Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to allow him to make a statement, which wasn’t allowed as Jaitley hadn’t yielded as per the procedure of the House.
While strongly defending government’s track records on economic fronts, Jaitley said, “Since 2004 to 2014, the UPA government couldn’t carry out a single structural reform. We have undertaken a number of structural reforms which demonstrate that we know how to bite the bullet when we have to take difficult decisions.”.
Lok Sabha is likely to pass the Budget on Friday.