Beed: After facing flak for reportedly defending Prime Minister Narendra Modi with regards to the controversial Rafale deal, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Monday, while refuting the support, said he would “never” do such a thing.
Addressing a gathering here, Pawar demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal and asked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to disclose the price of the 36 fighter jets.
“Some are saying I am supporting the Prime Minister. I have not supported and would never do that. Question is how the price of aircraft increased from Rs 650 crore to Rs 1600 crore. The government must clarify it in the Parliament. It must be probed and documents must be presented before a Joint Parliamentary Committee,” Pawar said.
Clarifying his stand on the Rafale deal, the NCP chief said, “I also say that till the time I do not have any evidence, I will not level any allegations on the Prime Minister or anyone else.”
Reportedly, Pawar had earlier told a Marathi television channel that “people do not have doubts” over Prime Minister Modi’s intention. This statement was widely propagated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including party president Amit Shah, stressing on the point that the party had found an endorsement from the opposition camp on the Rafale deal.
Clearing the air, Lok Sabha MP and Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule, in an exclusive interview to ANI, said that her father was misquoted by Marathi media outlets and rubbished the subsequent perception that saw the NCP and Sharad Pawar drift away from the opposition.
However, after Pawar’s alleged statement, the NCP’s founder-member Tariq Anwar resigned from the party, claiming that Pawar’s statement on the Rafale deal created a ‘misunderstanding’ among the people regarding the Opposition.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]