'We did not mislead the Supreme Court,' says Defence Min on Rafale judgment

New Delhi, Jan 4: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha replied to Congress allegation against the BJP government in Rafale jet deal. Defence Minister accused the Congress of scrapping an earlier deal when it was in power because it "didn't get the money" and ignored social security in favour of its "treasury security".

On Supreme Court's Rafale judgement, Nirmala Sitharaman, said, "After hearing matter in detail, we find no reason for intervention on the issue of the purchase 36 aircraft. Perception of individuals cannot be the basis of an inquiry. We did not mislead the Supreme Court."

The minister accused the Congress of misleading the country by saying that the current government reduced 126 Rafale jets to 36. "The Congress was supposed to buy 18 in fly-away condition, the NDA raised that to 36," she said.

She further said, "I want to say to Kharge ji, who is a member of Standing Committee that looked into various issues related to Defence production,in a report stated: "Standing Committee is disappointed to know that even after 3 decades HAL hasn't been able to develop the required aircraft."

Earlier, Congress accused the BJP-led government of lying before the Supreme Court by citing a "non-existent" CAG report on Rafale deal and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi reply to the debate in Lok Sabha on the issue.

Speaking during the short-duration discussion on Rafale, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused Modi of giving offset contract to his "favourite man" and reiterated the demand for a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee. "The Rafale deal is a Rs 1.30 lakh crore scam. Modi takes 'AA' along in his flight.... There should be a JPC probe since it is a very big scam. It has to be probed in the court of Parliament," Kharge said.