Shah hits out at Antony over chopper deal

Continuing the tirade against Congress over the AgustaWestland chopper deal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Thursday asked former defence minister and senior Congress leader AK Antony to clarify on whose orders “changes in the agreement” were made.

“Antony should tell at whose behest changes were made in the agreement. Why were the field trials of the helicopter shifted abroad,” Shah said, launching his campaign for the May 16 Assembly elections in Antony’s home state of Kerala.

Addressing a public meeting at Ranni in Pathanamthitta district, the BJP chief slammed Antony for his statement that BJP had a “secret tie-up” with CPI(M) in Kerala.

BJP had only one open agenda and that was to dump both the Congress-led UDF and CPI-headed LDF “in the Arabian sea”, he said, projecting his party as the alternative in the state. On their claim that there would be communal tension in Kerala if the NDA came to power, Shah said his party was ruling in 14 states and there was no communal strife anywhere. 

“PM Narendra Modi stresses on equal justice and protection to all is our motto. This is what BJP governments follow in all states,” he said. Shah said NDA should come to power to speed up the declaration of the famous hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa as a national pilgrim centre and also for setting up the proposed rubber park in the district. 

He alleged that during the successive rules of UDF and LDF, several injustices had been done to various sections of the society.