Scorpene leak: Congress demands security audit

The Opposition party said the responsibility of the political executive, including the Defence Minister and the Prime Minister, also needs to be looked into. However, the party stopped short of demanding any resignations.

The leak, the Congress said, has “put a question mark on India’s maritime security and jeopardised the initiative to build six Scorpene submarines.” It said that despite the “Himalayan blunder which has deeply hurt India’s defence preparedness”, the government is calling it a “mere hacking”. It said that while the government has said that the source of leak is overseas, the French company, DCNS, has indicated that the leak happened from India.

The party’s communication department head, Randeep Surjewala, said the French company has “clearly pointed out that DCNS is not from where the leak has come from and the leak has happened in India… But Government of India is only indulging in blame game and cover-up operation and underplaying this stunning breach of security. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has done little else since this morning and that is indeed tragic.”

Watch video: Secret Data On India’s Scorpene Submarines Leaked

Asked whether the Congress would demand resignation of the Defence Minister, he said: “Unlike BJP, which used to demand resignations at the drop of a hat, we would exercise caution. It is an extremely serious matter involving national security and the role of everybody including the Defence Minister has to be probed… whether Defence Minister was lax…would have to be examined by an inquiry panel through a security audit… responsibility of the political executive, which mainly means the Defence Minister and the PM, needs to be fixed…”

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“We will await constitution of an inquiry. In case the government and the Defence Minister fail to do so and continue to give certificates of innocence, the needle of suspicion will land at their doorstep,” he said.