AgustaWestland deal: Why is your name on Italy list? BJP asks Sonia

Hitting back at Sonia Gandhi, BJP on Wednesday asked the Congress president to use her “old relations” in Italy to find out why an Italian court mentioned her name in AgustaWestland corruption case and said more revelations are on the way.

Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the government will fulfill the Congress chief's demand for a thorough probe whose modalities will be decided once Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has made a statement in Parliament on the issue.

“The truth is that the Italian court documents carry some facts and her name is there. Names of some senior ministers (of UPA government) are also there. She must have some contacts in Italy. She should find out from her old relations why the court gave such order after two years.

“Why the court wrote such things that has created such a big trouble for her in India. If it is vendetta, she should ask the Italian court about it,” Rudy, MoS for Parliamentary Affairs, told a press conference, making a reference to Gandhi's Italian origin and her today's charge that allegations against her and other Congress leaders are part of a strategy of character assassination.

“She asked what the government did in the last two years. We will do a probe. Whatever you want will happen... More revelations will come,” he said.

Centre to blacklist AgustaWestland

Executing its plan, the BJP on Wednesday sought to drag Sonia Gandhi into the controversial Rs 3,600-crore VVIP AgustaWestland chopper deal with its newly-nominated MP Subramanian Swamy taking her name that caused a huge ruckus in the Rajya Sabha as Congress members stor-med the well of the House and paralysed it for an hour.

Hitting back, Gandhi rejected the allegations against her and party leaders as “false and baseless” and calling them as an attempt at “character assassination”.

The controversial deal and the alleged bribes to the tune of Rs 120 crore paid in clinching it rocked the Rajya Sabha against the backdrop of an Italian court citing handwritten references to Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel and former Air Chief S.P. Tyagi by a middleman in a judgement that convicted the helicopter company's chief executive.

When the House re-assembled, Deputy Chairman P. J. Kurien expunged some of the references and allegations against Gandhi saying he should not name a member who cannot come and defend himself or herself. Gandhi is a member of the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, the government said it will seek a report from the CBI on the deal and initiate the move to blacklist AgustaWestland and its parent company Finme-ccanica. Top Modi government sources claimed the UPA government had not blacklisted Agusta-Westland despite allegations of bribery.