Pawar hasn’t given PM clean chit, says party

Mumbai: Following Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s comments that people do not doubt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intentions behind the Rafale deal, his party has come out with a clarification.

The NCP clarified that Mr Pawar is firm about the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the deal and that for declaration of the price of each plane.

The party stressed that Mr Pawar had not given a “clean chit” to Mr Modi as had been reported by a section of the media.

Mr Pawar, in an interview with a Marathi news channel, reportedly said, “In this (Rafale) issue, people are thinking that Mr Modi’s intentions are not wrong.” This was interpreted as Mr Pawar giving a clean chit to Mr Modi over the Rafale deal. It was also said that Mr Pawar’s statement was in a way a break from the Congress’ attempts to politicise the issue.

At a press conference in Mumbai, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik attempted to counter this perception saying, “Mr Pawar has not given a clean chit to the government. His replies on the subject are being misinterpreted. He clearly said that there should be a JPC to probe the issue. Mr Pawar also cleared that the Modi government should make the price of the jets public.”

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Congress-in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge termed Mr Pawar’s statements as his personal opinion. “I am not aware of what Mr Pawar exactly said. But the Congress party believes that there is a scam and therefore, there should be JPC probe,” he said.

The Congress has launched an offensive against the BJP government over the deal, alleging corruption and violation of rules by Mr Modi. It has accused the government of causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by bypassing state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in favour of some businessman “friends” for offset contract.