Why PM Modi’s visit to Italy for G-7 left Cong grumbling? Has VVIP chopper scam come back to haunt it?
New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Italy for the G7 Summit was his first overseas trip in the third term and fifth consecutive visit to the Group of Seven nations.
His warm welcome in Italy, however, ruffled many feathers back home, particularly it left the Congress party ‘rattled’ as it kept questioning the purpose and rationale behind PM Modi’s Italy trip.
Sources suggest that Congress’ grumbling could be because of its ‘fears’ of AgustaWestland scam (VVIP chopper scam) coming back to haunt it, especially at a time when it is basking in the glory of Lok Sabha ‘success’.
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also questioned: “Why was the Congress constantly whining about PM Modi’s visit to Italy for G7 Summit?” He also shared an account of details as to what is making the grand old party ‘anxious and flustered’.
A leading international daily citing sources claimed that Italy has shared their court’s detailed judgement on the AgustaWestland chopper scam, running into 225 pages and also a trail of documents in the bribery scandal with India.
As it is evident, the damning documents may set the ball rolling and may see the high-profile politicians and middlemen in India nailed for their wrongdoing.
It also claimed that the investigations and prosecution in the VVIP chopper scam of Congress-led UPA era may pick up pace post PM Modi’s return from his recent trip to Italy.
What will make matters worse for the Congress is the trail of classified documents that will ‘fix’ the culpability and also identify the leading faces from the political party who allegedly received kick-backs worth more than Rs 600 crore in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam in 2013.
The chopper scam may not have reached conclusion in India but the Italian court did convict the bribe-givers to Indian counterparts. The sealed Italian documents, handed over to India, are also said to have names of those received kickbacks in the defence scam.
This is bound to ring alarm bells for those who were in power during the UPA-II regime and skeletons of one of the biggest defence scams, which remained buried for a decade, are set to come out of the closet.
Notably, AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam is a corruption case of UPA-II regime in which bribes were paid to middlemen and perhaps to politicians also, as India inked a deal to buy 12 VVIP choppers by Italian defence manufacturing giant Finmeccanica, at an estimated cost of Rs 3,600 crore.
–IANS
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