The country wants to know who instigated, benefited from AgustaWestland scam: Parrikar

The Upper House of the Indian Parliament witnessed fireworks with lawmakers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress exchanging barbs over the matter.

Parrikar said: "The country wants to know who instigated, supported and benefited from corruption. We can't let this pass."

The opposition attacked him for reading out his statement during the debate.

Ex- Defence Minister AK Antony participated in the debate over the AgustaWestland scam in the Rajya Sabha and said the former Congress-led UPA government followed zero tolerance towards corruption in the defence sector.

"Defence procurement created a lot of controversy. A government cannot appreciate a previous government," Antony said in the Rajya Sabha.

He said: "I can tell you sincerely our government had zero tolerance for corruption in defence."

He said six companies were blacklisted.

"We had sent a message to the world that India is not going to tolerate corruption," he said.

Antony dared BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who attacked the Congress over the scam earlier in the day during the debate, to prosecute them if he has evidence.

"Don't threaten us," Antony told Swamy.

Swamy targeted the former Congress-led UPA government and said a clear effort could be seen to eliminate all other companies so that only Agusta would fit the required criteria.

"There was a clear effort to eliminate all other companies so that only Agusta was able to fit the required criteria," Swamy said in the Parliament.

"Congress did not test the helicopter they bought...They didn't use AW101 aircra for field trials but used some other helicopter, which is fraud in its itself," he said.

Congress leader Anand Sharma, however, denied the charges.

He attacked the BJP and said attempts have been made to misled people on the issue of the AgustaWestland scam.

The Trinamool Congress attacked the BJP and Congress over the issue and said both the parties are together while dealing with theAgustaWestland scam.

"No action was taken by UPA in the Augusta Westland issue. Neither has BJP done anything. Are the BJP-Congress together on this," TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said.

Earlier, the Rajya Sabha witnessed an uproar as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar started giving chronological details of theAgustaWestland deal.

"This matter started in 2002, just wanted to inform the house the chronological order of events in the matter, without any comments," Parrikar said.

Parrikar’s ‎statement in the Rajya Sabha came in the wake of the ruling BJP mounting  attacks on the Congress, particularly aiming at party president  Sonia Gandhi, over the deal.

The BJP has alleged that the former UPA government had allegedly eased some key clauses to benefit the UK-based AgustaWestland, with whom India had signed a Rs 3,727-crore contract for 12 AW-101 choppers in February 2010.

Ahead of the proceedings in Parliament, Congress president Sonia Gandhi chaired a meeting of party MPs while Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met senior ministers on Wednesday.