Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have the courage to arrest Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for her connections to the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland scam, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday. Attacking the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, Kejriwal said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its Congress opposition had an "alliance in corruption", reported PTI.
Referring to an Italian court order in the controversial AgustaWestland helicopter deal, he said it "also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her." According to Kejriwal, there has not been even an "inch of movement" in the investigation into the deal in the two years that the BJP has been in power, despite promises made during its Lok Sabha poll campaigns.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader said the two parties had an understanding between them that the central government would not arrest Sonia Gandhi in the VVIP chopper scam and, in return, the Congress would remain silent on Modi's educational qualifications possibly being fake. Kejriwal has been vehemently saying that the prime minister's college degree is not genuine. On Friday, the Aam Aadmi Party reiterated its assertion that it was not Modi but his namesake who graduated from Delhi University in 1978.
The AgustaWestland helicopter deal was an agreement made in 2010, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government was to buy 12 helicopters from the British-Italian firm for around Rs 3,600 crore. The deal was put on hold after Italy arrested the head of Finmeccanica on charges that the company paid bribes to win the contract.
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