Cong asks CVC to register Rafale FIR

NEWDELHI: The Congress on Monday urged Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) KV Chowdary to register an FIR (First Information Report) to probe alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter aircraft deal and seize all documents related to the contract.

The demand was made by an 11-member delegation of senior Congress leaders during its meeting with the CVC, days after a similar deputation met the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Rajiv Mehrishi and sought a forensic audit of the Rafale deal, also urging him to submit a detailed report on the issue in Parliament.

The Congress delegation handed over a memorandum to the CVC, charging the government with causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by sidestepping the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in favour of Anil Ambani’s company for the offset contract. It claimed that the deal announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at an “escalated price of about 300%” and sealed in violation of the Defence Procurement Policy (DPP). Modi announced the procurement of 36 Rafale jets after holding talks with the then French president Francois Hollande in Paris on April 10, 2015.

The delegation comprised senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha, Parmod Tiwari and Pranav Jha.

As per the law, the Congress note said, the government is bound to provide full information, including the price of the 36 aircraft, to the commission. “Entire deal, its contours, nature of contract, absence of favouritism, corruption, crony capitalism, violation of law and procedures and the principles of level playing field are part of CVC’s domain to examine and to return a finding.”

“We, therefore, request the CVC to undertake its statutory duty by examining record threadbare, so that corruption, crony capitalism, violation of law and procedure and loss to public exchequer is brought out as the earliest,” the memorandum said.

Singhvi later told reporters that the government has no answers to various questions raised on the deal. He also accused the Modi government of compromising India’s friendly ties with France by alleging “collusion” between Hollande and Congress president Rahul Gandhi over Rafale.

Attacking finance minister Arun Jaitley over his remarks on Sunday on the Rafale issue, Singhvi claimed that the Modi government is trying to influence the CAG.

Jaitley said “CAG would study the pricing and take a view on whether the NDA government’s deal was better than the one UPA was negotiating”.

“How can any minister say what the CAG will do? This is a clear direction, a message, an indication, trying to tell the CAG what to do, how much to do and what it should not do,” Singhvi alleged.