Congress, govt fight over Rafale

NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Modi government were on Friday involved in a slugfest over the Rafale deal after a news report claimed that the PMO ran a parallel negotiation with the French government in 2015.

Taking a cue from the news report, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, at a press conference in the party headquarters, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being directly involved in the deal with France by running a parallel negotiation then.

“We have been saying for more than a year that the prime minister is directly involved in the Rafale scam,” he said.

“Today, The Hindu newspaper has put it in black and white. It is absolutely clear that the prime minister himself was carrying out a parallel negotiation with the French,” he said.

In the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rubbished the media report and hit out at the Congress over its attack on the government, saying the party is flogging a dead horse to keep the issue alive.

Her remarks came in the Lok Sabha after the Congress and other opposition parties created pandemonium over the news report and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) into the deal.

“If the newspaper wanted to bring out the truth, they would have approached the Defence Ministry and done a thorough check... Every question on Rafale has been answered thoroughly and transparently... not just here in the House, but also in court,” Sitharaman said during Zero

We have been saying for more than a year that the Prime Minister is directly involved in the Rafale scam

Hour accusing the newspaper of “publishing a report without any facts” to back it.

The minister said the Congress was raising the issue on the basis of a news report.

She said the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar had replied to the Ministry of Defence note saying there was nothing to worry as everything was going alright.

About suspected interference by the PMO, Sitharaman said that PMO inquiries about the progress of any work cannot be “construed as interference”.

Earlier, speaking on the issue in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the opposition does not want a discussion or any clarification on Rafale but a JPC probe.

Trinamool’s Saugata Roy said the Defence Ministry had objected to this parallel negotiation by the Prime Minister’s Office and his wellknown and “notorious” national security adviser Ajit Doval was “undermining” the bargaining capacity of the government.

RAHUL GANDHI Congress President