People do not doubt Modi’s Rafale intentions, says Sharad Pawar

Mumbai: At a time the Opposition led by the Congress is mounting attacks on the NDA government on the Rafale fighter jet issue, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has said that people “do not have doubts” over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intentions.

In an interview to a Marathi news channel, the former defence minister said that the Opposition’s demand to share technical details relating to the fighter jet “made no sense”.

“I don’t think people have doubts about Mr Modi’s intentions personally,” Mr Pawar told the news channel.

He, however, said that there is no harm for the government to disclose the aircraft price.

BJP president Amit Shah was quick to thank Mr Pawar for giving a virtual clean chit to Mr Modi and asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to believe his own ally who has put “national interests above party politics”.

“I thank Sharad Pawar, a former defence minister and veteran MP, for placing national interests above party politics and speaking the truth. Dear Rahul Gandhi, you would be wiser by believing your own ally and a leader of Pawar Saheb’s stature,”
Mr Shah tweeted.

He tagged the Congress president in his tweet which also attached a news story on Mr Pawar’s comments.

Mr Pawar earlier said that the way defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented
the government’s side over the jet deal led to confusion in the minds of people.

“Now, (Union finance minister Arun) Jaitley can be seen articulating (government’s stand) on the issue (instead of Sitharaman),” he added.

Later, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said that Mr Pawar has not given any clean chit to Mr Modi on the Rafale issue.

Alleging that media reports over Mr Pawar’s statement are “confusing and misleading”, Mr Malik said, “He (Pawar) has not made any statement defending Mr Modi nor has he given any clean chit (in the Rafale deal matter).”

The Congress has launched an offensive against the BJP government over the Rafale deal, alleging corruption and violation of rules by Mr Modi. It has accused the government of causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security
by bypassing state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in favour of some businessman “friends” for offset contract.