Bracing to face opposition heat over chopper scam in Parliament, Defence Minister A K Antony today said government has "nothing to hide" and is prepared for a discussion even as he played down reports of his resignation.

"I will do my duty. I am now getting ready for the Parliament session. We will explain everything to Parliament. We have nothing to hide. Our hands are very clean," Antony told reporters on being asked whether he would resign.

Reacting to BJP’s allegations that the Defence Ministry was "sleeping" over the reports of corruption in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 VVIP choppers, he said, "I cannot wake up anybody who is sleeping".

The Defence Ministry had started taking action on the issue from day one when first media reports in this regard came in, Antony said.

Addressing a press conference at a BrahMos Aerospace function, he said there were no differences between different ministries on the process to scrap the deal and the whole Government was working together.

Antony said he was "sad and upset" over the controversy which had erupted despite all precautions having been taken. "Now we are preparing to face Parliament."

The Minister was asked if he was sad over the whole episode and was resigning on the issue taking a high moral ground.

Antony said he was upset over the alleged scam as despite blacklisting six firms in one scam for which he was accused of slowing down modernisation, such an incident has happened as "there was no end to human greed and still greedy people were working around the world."

Antony said in the procurement process for the AgustaWestland choppers, all wings of the Government including the Ministry, IAF and SPG had "followed all the procedures. In spite of that one thing is clear that something happened somewhere."

"It is the decision of the government that we must get to the root of the controversy to find out the truth and must find out the culprits. And whosoever is responsible, must be brought to justice at the earliest and then ensure maximum punishment. It is the resolve of the entire government," he said.

Asked about the reason for the Government to take a series of actions in the last one week after it waited for one year for details from Italy and the UK, the Defence Minister said, "When the report came that the CEO of the company (Finmeccanica) was arrested, we decided to refer the matter to the CBI."

Last Tuesday, Finmeccanica CEO Giueseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini were arrested by Italian investigators in connection with the alleged scam in which Rs 362 crore have been allegedly paid as kickbacks.

The Minister said he has taken a series of actions including referring the matter to the CBI, suspending the deal and payments for it after the reports of the arrest came in.

"We have now taken action for the cancellation of the contract for which we have given a show cause notice and we are waiting for the reply (from Italy). We are also awaiting the return of our official and the CBI team. We will proceed as per law but we will not show any mercy towards anyone," he said.