“It appears that PMO and French president’s office are monitoring the progress of the issue which was an outcome of the summit meeting.” He said the last paragraph, which suggested a “revised modality of negotiations to be led by PMO” appeared to be an o

Bank of India are at the heart of the Opposition campaign.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi reiterated his demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe of the Rafale deal and used the report, published in The Hindu, to step up his attack on Modi.

“Now, we have been saying now for more than a year that the Prime Minister is directly involved in the Rafale scam. Now today, in The Hindu Newspaper, it is black and white — it is absolutely black and white that the Prime Minister himself was carrying out a parallel negotiation with the French,” Gandhi told reporters.

The newspaper report cited a November 24, 2015 defence min- istry note to then defence minister Manohar Parrikar as saying that “we may advise the PMO that any officers who are not part of the Indian Negotiating Team (INT) may refrain from having parallel parlays (parleys) with the officers of French government.”

The note said that the details of the parallel negotiations conducted by the PMO had come to the defence ministry’s notice from an October 23, 2015 letter from General Stephen Reb, the head of the French negotiating team. “...In case the PMO is not confident about the outcome of negotiations being carried out by the MOD, a revised modality of negotiations led by PMO at appropriate level may be adopted in the case,” it added.

Sitharaman noted that the newspaper had published a file noting written by then defence secretary G Mohan Kumar that read: “It is desirable that such discussions be avoided by the PMO as it undermines our negotiating position seriously.”

She said that it showed only half the truth because a handwritten reply to the defence secretary’s note by then defence minister Manohar Parrikar was not reported.

“If a newspaper publishes a noting, then the ethics of journalism will demand that the newspaper publishes the then defence minister’s reply as well,” Sitharaman said.

Congress spokesperson Union minister