Nirmala Sitharaman on Rafale LIVE: Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Pakistan army chief demoralised Indians

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman is addressing the media at Indian women’s press corps in Delhi.Here are the live updates:

4:30 PM IST

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman (ANI/Twitter)

Centre gets fixed tax on fuel: Sitharaman

If you breakdown the price of petrol and diesel the tax that centre gets is a fixed price. State governments taxes on fuel is a certain percentage and changes. What we collect as taxes certain amount goes to the states too says Nirmala Sitharaman on fuel hike.

4 PM IST

No proposal yet to cut Army strength: Sitharaman

No proposal yet to cut down army strength. But the army chief must have discussed it internally, says Nirmala Sitharaman

3:55 PM IST

Sidhu’s hug demoralised Indians: Sitharaman

Navjot Sidhu has a lot of admirers, he’s got his own following. Somebody of that stature going there and hugging the chief of the army; it certainly has an impact on the soldiers. It demoralises people.

3:45 pm IST

Direct all questions to UPA: Sitharaman

UPA could have strenghtened HAL. Every question should actually go to them(UPA government), they didn’t take care of HAL, didn’t make agreement appealing enough. Negotiations with Russia on S400 have almost reached the final stage