‘No Quattrocchis, Swiss Payments In Rafale Contract’ Says Sitharaman; Blames HAL, AK Antony For Earlier Deal Collapse

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the Imran Khan-led government in Pakistan must deliver on the anti-terror front if it wants bilateral dialogue with India to resume. The Times of India has reported that Sitharaman had said that terror can't go with talks and added that “Pakistan entertains terrorism from its soil.”

She said, "Ceasefire violations continue to happen and non-state actors are also trying to infiltrate across our borders. Our armed forces are very efficiently eliminating them at the border, or in the hinterland if they somehow manage to enter." Sitharaman has completed a year as Defence Minister.

On being asked if the Modi government had failed to present a "coherent defence" on the Rafale deal issue, she said it wasn't true. "The Rafale deal is through an inter-governmental agreement, without any illegitimate transaction. There are no Quattrocchis, no Win Chadas, or payments in Switzerland either. Foreign investigation agencies tracking the money trail in Bofors identified Quattrochi who had access to the first family of the Congress, as going in and out with the money."

Meanwhile,The Hindu reported that Sitharaman blamed Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and former defence minister AK Antony for the collapse of the UPA's Rafale deal. The report says, "Ms Sitharaman also said that an unprecedented intervention in 2013 by then Defence Minister A K Antony when the cost negotiation committee was giving final touches to the deal, put the final nail in the coffin."