CONG MOVES PRIVILEGE MOTION AGAINST PM MODI, DEF MINISTER ON RAFALE DEAL
NEW DELHI: The Congress has on Tuesday moved a privilege motion against Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for ‘misleading the nation’ on Rafale deal during Friday’s no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha. Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge brought the privilege motion and wrote a letter to the speaker mentioning the reason behind it.
If the Lok Sabha Speaker admits the motion, it will go to the House’s Committee of Privileges that may issue a notice to the member and hold a hearing. Action may include brief suspension from the House. Rahul Gandhi during his speech referred to the Rafale deal to hit the Modi government and its defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
He also said French President has told him that there is no secrecy clause. However, his words were promptly rejected by Sitharaman and PM Modi. Even France government gave out a clarification. But Congress it seems like is not willing to drop the issue. According to Rahul Gandhi, there was scam in the Rafale deal and government needs to come clean on it.
“The prime minister has along with the defence minister deliberately mislead the House, it is, therefore, requested that this notice of breach of privilege be accepted and referred to the privilege committee for further proceedings,” the notice against the prime minister says. The prime minister’s claim of transparency in the 2008 confidentiality agreement with France is factually incorrect, untrue, and deliberately made with the intention to mislead the House, according to the notice.
The prime minister and his cabinet, as per the Constitution, are collectively accountable to Parliament and through it to the people of the country, it says. The minister had knowingly and intentionally misled Parliament by withholding the information that the government is obliged to reveal to Parliament, the notice against Sitharaman says.
On Monday, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s understanding of national security issues is poor, and that his party’s stand is not in national interest. “Dragging the French President into internal politics is unfortunate,” said Prasad. The Congress on Monday said there was no clause in a 2008 pact between India and France that prevents the government from divulging price details of the Rafale deal.
The former defence minister and senior Congress leader A K Antony said the government’s claim that a secrecy clause in the pact was forcing it to not reveal price details of the deal was “totally wrong”. They have to reveal price details of each aircraft, he said.
He also said the government cannot hide the price details of the Rafale jets as the deal has to be scrutinised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as well as Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
“The French government had no objection in revealing the price of the Rafale aircraft. This was conveyed by the French president to Rahul Gandhi,” he said. Another Congress leader, Randeep Singh Surjewala, echoed him and said the Prime Minister and the defence minister misled Parliament on the issue.