CONTROVERSY REIGNITED

A report by The Hindu said a defence ministry bureaucrat raised concerns over “parallel parleys” with French side by PMO officials

Congress president Rahul Gandhi

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman

said the report made “absolutely black and white that the Prime Minister himself was carrying out a parallel negotiation with the French”

said that the portion of the note published showed only half the truth because a handwritten reply by then defence minister Manohar Parrikar was not reported