Not a grain of truth in fresh allegations regarding Rafale deal: Arun Jaitley

In response to a joint statement released by advocate Prashant Bhushan and former Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie earlier in the day, alleging that the Rafale defence deal had put national security at risk, Jaitley said the attempt was made to to tarnish the image of the government.

"I have seen today another attempt at maligning the Government by spreading falsehood and paddling fabricated facts regarding the 2016 Inter-Governmental Agreement for the procurement of Rafale fighter aircraft," the Union Minister said in a statement. 

"It is even more reprehensible that this fresh attempt to tarnish the image of the Government should come less than two weeks after the miserable failure of a similar effort in the Parliament," said he.

Stating the fresh allegations as baseless, Jaitley said: "There is not a grain of truth in the wild allegations repeated today nor anything substantiating in the purported facts and voluminous documents marshalled to corroborate the baseless accusations."

Jaitley said the "unsubstantiated allegations" against the Government constitute nothing but "reprocessed lies by forces increasingly desperate to prove their relevance."

He said that the Government had already responded  to each and every distortion and misinformation on the issue.

He warned oppositions to refrain from politicising for narrow individual ends.

"Meanwhile, those raising alarm about the alleged danger to national security ought to realise their responsibility and refrain from politicising for narrow individual ends those very matters pertaining to defence of the nation that were consistently ignored by them and by those with whom they sympathise," said he.