"We cannot throw misinformation at public, Nirmala Sitharaman said in an apparent dig at the opposition.
Accusing the opposition of spreading misinformation about the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today that she wondered whether they were becoming pawns in corporate rivalry and whether the procurement of 36 fighter jets was being "sabotaged."
Ms Sitharaman added that ever since PM Modi's government came to power, there was a conscious effort to keep middlemen away from the Defence Ministry.
"I want every strand of this debate to be explained, as much as it can be, without any of us playing into the hands of international corporate warfare. None of us should play party to any corporate warfare. We cannot become pawns in the hands of the corporate giants to constantly bully the government, to constantly throw misinformation at the public, to misinform the public," she said.
Her attack on the opposition parties comes a day after a report claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of 126 as negotiated by the previous UPA government, was taken while bypassing mandated procedures, pushing the price of each aircraft by 41.42 per cent. The Congress has launched attack at the government on the Rafale deal citing this report.
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