Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday refuted all allegations linking her and party leaders to bribes in the AgustaWestland chopper deal and termed it as “baseless” even as former Defence Minister AK Antony dubbed it a “political conspiracy” to malign party leadership and cover-up NDA’s criminal negligence.
Three days after her and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s name cropped up in the controversial chopper deal, Sonia questioned the Centre for its incapability to conduct an enquiry despite being in power for the last two years. She now demanded that the ongoing enquiry be completed impartially.
“The Government is there for the last two years. What are they doingIJ Inquiry is there, why don’t they complete itIJ Complete it as soon as possible, impartially,” Sonia said replying to queries of mediapersons outside Parliament.
“I am not afraid of anyone cornering me as there is no basis to that. All the accusations they are throwing at us are false.…Where are the proofsIJ They are lying. They are part of a strategy of character assassination which we have known these people indulge in,” Sonia said.
Sonia’s comments come in the backdrop of the BJP targetting the Congress president and other party leaders on the issue of bribes in the AugustaWestland chopper deal during the UPA regime in a bid to corner the main Opposition party which has been paralysing Rajya Sabha on the Uttarakhand affair.
Antony on the other hand alleged that it was a political conspiracy to malign the party leadership and that Subramanian Swamy has been brought to Rajya Sabha to fulfill the Prime Minister’s “muck raking agenda”.
“These are baseless allegations. It is a political conspiracy to malign Congress leadership and cover-up NDA’s criminal negligence,” Antony said at the AICC briefing.
Assuring cooperation of the party in the probe, Antony alleged that the NDA Gover-nment “went to sleep” in the last two years “doing nothing”.
When asked about the names of Sonia Gandhi and some other Congress leaders being mentioned in the court verdict, Antony claimed, “No witnesses mentioned these names in hearing in the Italian Court”.
He said that the UPA Government not only pursued the matter in the Italian courts, but also saw to it that an officer of the Defence Ministry and the CBI was present during the hearings in the courts there.
In a statement, Congress said, “Prime Minister and BJP Government are seeking to weave a web of lies, perpetuate falsehoods and construct a mesh of deception to hoodwink the people of India in the AgustaWestland helicopter purchase and its parent company Finmeccanica.”