BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya says the Modi government, and not the UPA, blacklisted AgustaWestland, and that the Centre never withdrew the blacklisting. This, after the Congress, which leads the UPA coalition, said the BJP government lifted the UPA’s ban on the firm and even allowed it to bid for 100 naval utility choppers.
The row broke out when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said Christian Michel, an alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, had made a reference to “Mrs Gandhi”.
“After Christian named some ‘Mrs Gandhi’, ‘the son of the Italian lady’, the Congress party is scrambling to protect the ‘family’ by resorting to LIES,” Malviya tweeted today. “Here are FACTS: UPA did not blacklist AgustaWestland; the Modi government did and never withdrew the blacklisting.”
After Christian named some ‘Mrs Gandhi’, ‘the son of the Italian lady’, the Congress party is scrambling to protect the ‘family’ by resorting to LIES.
Here are FACTS: UPA did not blacklist AgustaWestland, Modi govt did and never withdrew the blacklisting. https://t.co/ne0uv0kJ4P
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 31, 2018
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Sunday that the ED under the NDA — the coalition headed by the BJP — was an “embarrassing disaster”.
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government of being AgustaWestland’s “protector, benefactor and promoter”.
The BJP hit back, saying the Congress had been “expectedly” nervous since Michel was extradited to India.
