Authenticate documents or comments will be expunged: Swamy told

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurein has given Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Subramanian Swamy time till 6 pm on Friday to authenticate his documents or his remarks will be struck off.

The chairman asked Swamy to produce documents he quoted from in the AgustaWestland debate after Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raised the issue.

“I want to know have the papers been authenticated?” Ramesh asked.

To this, Kurien said: “I have given the direction... He has to do that otherwise all what he quoted will be deleted. If he is not doing by 6 pm today (Friday) all he has quoted will be deleted.”

After this, Swamy tweeted, ‘Met Parriker and congratulated him for a smashing speech in LS. Will meet him again after satisfying Chm RS on docs authentication done (sic).’

Swamy, who debuted as a Rajya Sabha member last week, led the ruling BJP’s attack on the opposition Congress on the chopper deal in which bribes were allegedly paid by Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland in India when the Congress was in power.

The Congress hit back at Swamy calling him ‘diabolical and twisted’.

“He suffers from an obsession...that’s why he keeps quoting the wrong country. It reveals your twisted mindset. It is diabolical. I cannot come down to your level,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said, speaking right after Swamy during a debate on alleged bribes by defence manufacturer AgustaWestland to swing a contract for the supply of 12 helicopters to India.

Swamy’s debut speech in Parliament was full of indirect attacks at Congress president Sonia Gandhi. “Before even Dr Manmohan Singh, she should be interrogated first by the CBI," he said. Without taking her name, Swamy referred to her as ‘a super cabinet’ and a ‘higher authority than then PM Dr Singh’.