Nasheman News : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday lashed out at the Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi for repeatedly raking up the Rafale fighter jet deal and said the questions raised on the issue were meant to divert public attention from the comments made by Congress leaders “against national security”.

“The Congress has in the last few days through statements of its senior leaders boxed itself into a corner in a very difficult situation. They are getting high TRPs in Pakistani TVs. But there is a revulsion as far as domestic opinion in India is concerned,” Jaitley said. 

He was responding to query on Gandhi’s demand that an investigation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi should be carried out for conducting parallel negotiations and delaying the delivery of the Rafale fighter jets to India.

Jaitley said that the government had repeatedly made its position clear on the issue, the Supreme Court had spoken on it and the CAG had already analysed it.

“The petitioners are taking one more chance. No dynast can claim that he is above Supreme Court or CAG and that verdicts and findings don’t apply,” he said.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had demanded that India release evidences of air strike in Pakistan as the US did after killing Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) bombed Pakistan’s Balakot on February 26 in response to the February 14 terror attack in Kashmir which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force troopers. 

Nasheman News :With the Centre threatening a probe over stealing of “privileged documents” related to Rafale deal from the Defence Ministry, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday demanded an investigation against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for conducting parallel negotiations and delaying the delivery of the French jets to India.

Addressing the media here, Gandhi said that the stolen documents clearly state the Prime Minister was responsible for the delayed delivery and inflated price of the jets. 

“The government now says it will investigate the media for the Rafale files being stolen. But the one (Modi) who conducted parallel investigation why will he not be investigated? 

“If the documents have been stolen, that means they are authentic and they clearly state that parallel negotiations were carried out by the Prime Minister, the price of the jets were inflated and the delivery of the jets was delayed.

“Let there be investigation about the documents but at the same time also investigate the Prime Minister’s role in the Rafale (deal),” said Gandhi.

Referring to the Centre’s arguments in the Supreme Court during hearing of petitions seeking recall of its December 14 verdict giving a “clean chit” on the purchase of the Rafale jets, Gandhi said the sole objective of the government and its machinery was to defend the “chowkidar” (watchman). 

With the government rejecting the Congress party’s persistent demand for a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), Gandhi asked why Modi was afraid of investigation into the deal.

“Why isn’t the Prime Minister allowing an investigation against himself if he is not guilty? Why did he refuse a JPC? If there is nothing wrong in the deal, then let there be an investigation. Modi should say he is not afraid of any probe and allow investigation into the deal,” asserted Gandhi. 

Citing the documents, Gandhi said that the Indian negotiating team clearly stated that the Prime Minister carried out parallel negotiations to enrich his industrialist crony by Rs 30,000 crore in the deal.

“It’s a blatant case of corruption, it is clearly stated that the Prime Minister of India carried out a parallel negotiation. Why should there not be a criminal investigation?

“The problem in India is, there is a criminal investigation only on people who oppose Modi,” said Gandhi, who a day earlier had called for an FIR against him saying there was enough evidence to prosecute him for corruption in the deal.

Nasheman News : Days after burying differences and finalizing seat-sharing agreement with Bharatiya Janata Party in Punjab, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Wednesday lashed out at the Opposition for asking how many people died in air strike on terror camps in Pakistan.

In an interview with IANS, the Union Minister of Food Processing said the Congress and 21 opposition parties are speaking the language of Pakistan.

“It is shameful that you are questioning our armed forces and believing what Pakistan is saying,” she said launching a blistering attack on the Opposition for not believing the the armed forces.

The minister said she was worried that the Opposition’s stand will affect the morale of the armed forces. She said that going into the enemy territory and targeting terror camps in itself is a commendable achievement and required guts.

“Forget about how many people died. Are you not believing the head of our air force who said we went into the enemy territory. Even Pakistan has accepted this fact,” she said.

Confident after the seat-sharing agreement under which the SAD (Badal) and BJP decided to contest the same number of seats as in 2014 (SAD-B will contest 10 and the BJP 3 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab), Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the alliance will hit the bull’s eye this time by winning all 13 Lok Sabha seats.

She brushed aside fierce infighting within her own party’s camp saying these dissenting voices were “zeroes to start with and if you keep adding zeros the result is going to be zero”. 

The Union minister said the Congress has been attempting divide-and-rule in Punjab for many years, and that this time it was no different.

Amidst reports that SAD (B) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal may enter electoral fray as the party is facing one of its toughest battles, Harsimrat Kaur said the party will decide he will contest or not, but at the moment he is not keen. 

Dismissing Aam Admi Party (AAP), the third force in Punjab, as an irrelevant factor, she said the contest is going to be two-way only. “No one knows which AAP is there in Punjab. Punjab has four AAPs,” she said saying AAP was in total disarray.

The Union Minister, who is a Member of Parliament from Bathinda, said the party will decide if she will contest from the same constituency, but she has a lot to show in terms of work. 

She is not afraid to take on even Congress leader and arch rival Navjot Singh’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu from Bhatinda. “It will make the contest interesting,” she said on reports that the Congress might field the wife of the cricketer whom SAD-B has labelled as anti-national for supporting Pakistan.

BAGALKOT: Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday made a controversial statement about people wearing vermillion (tilak or tikka) on their foreheads.          

Addressing an event in Bagalkot’s Badami, he said, “I am scared of people who wear long tikas with kumkum or ash.” He had pointed to a man who was wearing a ‘tikka’ in the crowd and made the remark,

Wearing vermillion on the forehead is an ancient Hindu practice.

In January, Siddaramaiah had lost his cool and was caught on camera furiously snatching a mikefrom a woman, in the process of which her ‘dupatta’ also fell.

However, clarifying the incident later he said, “It was an accident, there was no bad intention. I know her for 15 years, she is just like my sister.”

Siddaramaiah is a sitting MLA from Badami constituency in Karnataka.