The Rajya Sabha saw a brief spat between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Congress members on Thursday when she said every issue raised by the party on the Rafale deal was clarified by the Supreme Court and there was no controversy except in the minds of the Opposition party leaders. The Congress members protested over it and staged a brief walk-out, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The face-off between the Minister and the Congress during the Question Hour ensued when Congress leader Anand Sharma in his supplementary query demanded that the Government make public the minutes of the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former French President Francois Hollande in 2015 on the Rafale deal in a bid to settle the controversy once for all.
To this, Swaraj said, “Anandji, there is no controversy. Controversy is there in your mind. All the controversy issues that you (Congress) raised, the Supreme Court has clarified on each of them. Please don’t use the word controversy again.” She also said “the whole country knows there is no controversy. The Supreme Court has cleared each issue. If you still think there is a controversy, then no one can reply.”
On the question raised by Shiv Sena member Sanjay Raut if there was any discussion on the Rafale deal during the recent visit of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to India, Swaraj said there was no discussion.
However, on that day, December 15, the Supreme Court verdict (on Rafale deal) was pronounced.
He (French Minister) was very visibly happy and felt there was no need to have discussion, she said. The Minister also said the Rafale deal was not on the agenda though she was ready if the matter came up. To another query on the Jaitapur Nuclear Power project, Swaraj said an agreement was signed on March 22, 2016, to set up a plant. France’s EDF and India’s NPCL are looking into it.
Allaying apprehensions about fate of Indians, mostly from Goa, having migrated to Britain on Portugese passports after Brexit, Swaraj said the Brexit task is not yet completed and there will not be any problem to Indians till the process gets over.
The British Parliament will start the discussion on this issue from January 7 and there will be more clarity on the relationship between the UK and the European Union in the second fortnight of this month, she added. “It won’t be definite to say anything at this point of time. The whole process will take two years and till then there will not be any problem,” Swaraj said.