Former Defence Minister A K Antony said on Friday it was “shocking” that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was conducting parallel negotiations on the Rafale deal, and alleged it had “special interests to protect”.
“This is shocking to me. In the defence negotiations, only the Defence Ministry is involved,” the senior Congress leader told presspersons outside Parliament.
“Never in the history of Government of India it has happened like that. What is the special interest of the PMO?... Why did the PMO take such a special interest in this case? They have special interests to protect. They want to favour somebody,” he alleged.
Mr. Antony was reacting to a report published by The Hindu on Friday that the Defence Ministry had raised strong objections to “parallel discussions” conducted by the PMO during the negotiations over the Rafale deal.
“Some serious thing is wrong there. Otherwise, the PMO has no role in price negotiations. It is the duty entirely of the Defence Ministry and armed forces. Only they do these kind of negotiations,” Mr. Antony said.
He said the government should immediately accede to the Opposition’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).