Agusta case: Congress to move privilege motion against Subramanian Swamy for 'speaking lies'

New Delhi: The Congress party on Thursday said that it will move a privilege motion against BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for misleading parliament on AgustaWestland deal.

Congress will also file a defamation case against a US-based website whose material was used by Swamy in the Rajya Sabha debate, Jairam Ramesh said.

He said the party will move a privilege motion against Swamy for speaking lies in the Rajya Sabha regarding the AgustaWestland deal.

"These two leaders have been lying blatantly and brazenly," senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said while talking to reporters here.

"Subramanian Swamy spoke against Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders in parliament and kept referring a document which according to him was an Italian court's judgement. In reality, this is a 13-page document consisting of two page of emails from Swamy to himself. Nine pages of the report were downloaded from www.pgurus.com and the remaining two pages are part of a news story run by an Indian news channel," Ramesh added.

The motion against Swamy is likely to be filed with Rajya Sabha chairman Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Friday, the last day of the ongoing session, Ramesh said.

"The document which Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar referred as the Italian court's judgement in the Lok Sabha are actually minutes of a meeting attended by the NSA," Ramesh said.

He further claimed that there was no mention of any Congress leader's name in any of the Italian court's judgment.

Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien had asked the newly-nominated Rajya Sabha MP to authenticate all documents by 6 pm on May 6, failing which all the claims Swamy made during the debate would have been deleted from records.

“Complying with the direction of the Chair, he (Subramanian Swamy) has already authenticated all the papers,” Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in the Upper House.

Swamy had earlier said that the "Congress is not able to tolerate facts" which he spoke about in the Rajya Sabha.

Congress leaders, on the other hand, had accused him of lying.

(With IANS inputs)