Sitharaman faces privilege motion for 'misleading' parliament with fake claims

The Congress on Monday moved a privilege motion against Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly "misleading" the Lok Sabha during the debate on Rafale fighter jets deal. Congress' K.C. Venugopal submitted a breach of privilege notice against Sitharaman which the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said is "under my consideration". Venugopal accused Sitharaman of misleading the House on two counts: "She told the House that Rs 1 lakh crore worth orders were given to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) which is false."

"During her reply on Rafale deal on Friday, she also misled the House by claiming that the Supreme Court has approved the government's stand on pricing of jets and purposefully avoided to inform the House that the court, in fact, has said that it will not go into pricing details of the jets," said Venugopal. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has accused Sitharaman of lying about the orders to the HAL and demanded her to prove her claims in the Parliament or resign.

During the day, Sitharaman, however, attacked Gandhi for raising "incorrect and misleading" doubts regarding her statement in Parliament and clarified that she has received confirmation from HAL that from 2014 to 2018, contracts amounting to Rs 26,570.80 crore had been signed with the public sector company and orders worth approximately Rs 73,000 crore are in the pipeline.