Row on parallel Rafale talks rocks Parliament

SLUGFEST Congress cites report to hit out at PM; Oppn flogging dead horse: govt

NEW DELHI: A fresh political firestorm broke out on Friday over a report that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had conducted parallel talks with the French government over the ₹59,000-crore Rafale jet fighter deal and had prompted the Union ministry of defence (MOD) to protest that the PMO was undermining India’s negotiating position.

Both houses of Parliament were rocked by Opposition protests over the newspaper report, which defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed as “flogging a dead horse,” saying periodic inquiries by the PMO “cannot be construed as interference”.in a statement in the Lok Sabha, she said the opposition parties were playing into the hands of multinational companies and vested interests.

Members of the Congress, Trinamool Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) strode to the well of the house, chanting slogans and showing placards referring to the report. Opposition members shouted slogans demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi resign.

The report handed fresh ammunition to the Opposition to attack Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government ahead of 2019 general elections.

The controversial defence deal, together with agrarian unrest, unemployment, and the alleged undermining of institutions such as the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Reserve