Manohar Parrikar hiding Rafale deal files

New Delhi, January 02: Here is the breaking news that, The Congress today claimed to have an audio recording of a Goa minister quoting Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar as saying that files related to the Rafale jet deal were "in his bedroom" and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether that was why his government was not allowing a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) inquiry.

In this regard, Manohar Parrikar tweeted that the audio clip was a "desperate attempt to fabricate facts". The minister supposedly on tape, Vishwajit Rane, says the tape is doctored and that Mr Parrikar "never made any reference to Rafale".

Manohar Parrikar was Union Defence Minister when the deal for 36 Rafale jets was signed between India and France. He has been chief minister of his native state Goa since March 2017. In recent months, he has been severely unwell, battling a pancreatic condition, which has spurred calls for his replacement.

From this perspective, The Congress claimed that Mr Parrikar had said at a meeting of the Goa cabinet that no one could remove him as "all the Rafale papers are in my flat, in my bedroom". Vishwajit Rane, the Goa health minister, is on tape relating this conversation, claimed Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala shortly before the jet deal was to be discussed in parliament.