Former Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of sacrificing national interests and urged him “not to politicise” the Armed forces. The Congress leader also accused the Prime Minister of “ignoring” the report of a committee that had said there were irregularities in the selection of L-1 in the Rafale deal and had called for its withdrawal.
At a time when the security forces were still fighting at the borders, the BJP president was giving out operational details of the armed forces action, which was very unfortunate, Antony said. “Even now our soldiers died, that details only Army and CRPF can explain, not BJP spokesman or BJP president. It is very very unfortunate. Don’t politicise the armed forces. Don’t bring the military in the politics. I request the BJP president, I request the prime minister don’t politicise the Army. As a former defence minister, I am telling them,” Antony said at AICC Press conference.
“No other leader but our prime minister is touring the country and is spreading misinformation. Yesterday, he has gone to the extent of saying Congress compromised the national security, accused Congress of delaying the Rafale deal for commission,” he said.
The former defence minister accused the prime minister of ignoring the report of the committee instituted by him to look into alleged irregularities pointed out by Subramanian Swamy and Yashwant Sinha, who was then in the BJP. After the complaint of Swamy and Sinha, and some members of the Contract Negotiating Committee, “a committee of experts found irregularity in the process of L-1. So, they categorically recommended that this must be withdrawn,” he alleged.