Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said he would like to see how those who are in alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would explain reports that Defence Ministry had protested over the mechanism adopted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for the Rafale deal.
The vice president of the National Conference (NC) which was an ally of NDA when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister Omar in his tweet today had tagged a document, purportedly of the Defence Ministry, which was published as part of a news report by The Hindu newspaper.
In a tweet Omar said “I’d like to see how this one is explained by the talking heads aligned to the BJP. @PMOIndia “weakened the negotiating position of the Ministry of Defence & the Indian Negotiating Team” as per this note in a MOD file that went up the the Defence Minister”.
The article published today said that the defence ministry had raised strong objections to “parallel negotiations” conducted by the PMO with the French side.
Omar in another tweet said “ How can he claim that “para 5 is an over-reaction” when he had no direct knowledge of the status or content of the negotiations? His act of passing the matter for the Def Sec to resolve with PMO clearly shows he had no grounds on which to base his “over-reaction” assessment”.
“The then Defence Minister @manoharparrikar was clueless about the progress of negotiations. All he could say was “IT APPEARS that @PMOIndia & French President’s office are monitoring the progress”. He had no direct knowledge of progress & passed the buck back to the PMO” the former CM said in the tweet.
He was reacting to national spokesperson of BJP Sambit Patra who had said “ this was the entire letter with all the notings. Defence Minister’s noting is clearly visible.
Meanwhile, in a tweet ANI news agency said “ANI accesses the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s reply to MoD dissent note on #Rafale negotiations.”It appears PMO and French President office are monitoring the progress of the issue which was an outcome of the summit meeting. Para 5 appears to be an over reaction” .
Earlier in the morning, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, quoting the Hindu newspaper article reiterated his demand for JPC probe into the deal.(UNI)
