NEW DELHI: Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today hit back at Opposition parties on VVIP chopper scam, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no meeting with Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi during UN summit last year.
"See 2 wht levl our opponents hv stoop down. And no such meeting has taken place and meetings between Prime Ministers cn nver b kept a secret," Naidu said in a tweet.
"The latest attempt is to divert the attention and defame our PM. Charge is our Prime Minister met Italian counterpart during UN summit and asked for information to implicate some congress leaders against release of Italian marines," he added.
The minister said the "opponents are giving more creditability to the middlemen, broker, accused and convicted rather than our own agencies".
"It is shocking media report suggests tht AgustaWestland spent Rs 50 cr to influence d decision making through media 2 get d choppers contract," he added.
The comments came on the backdrop of reports mentioning that money was allegedly paid to middlemen for managing the Indian media to produce favourable news on the AgustaWestland deal.