CONG LEADER DEMANDS JOINT PARLIAMENTARY BODY ON RAFALE

All India Congress Committee (AICC) spokesperson and the party in-charge for Bihar, Shakti Singh Gohil has reiterated the party’s demand for formation of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on the Rafale deal.

Addressing a press conference in Kota, Gohil said that the then UPA government had entered into an agreement with Dassault Aviation, a French company, for the manufacturing Rafale fighter aircraft at Rs 526.10 crore per aircraft in 2014, as per the recommendations of the technical committee of the union defence ministry.

Under the ₹3,600-crore deal, a total of 18 Rafale aircraft were to be purchased from the French company, and offset manufacturing of 108 aircraft was to be done in India by the public sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, he said.

“When NDA-led Modi government came to power, they altered the agreement, after which a total of 36 Rafale aircraft were to be purchased from France at the cost of ₹1,670 per aircraft,” he said. “

Moreover, the work of 50% offset manufacturing of Rafale aircraft worth ₹60,145 crore was awarded to the corporate friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi named Anil Ambani, whose company has no experience of manufacturing aircraft, he added.

“This is the grandmother of all the scams in the country in which the price of each Rafale fighter plane was escalated to 300%,” he alleged.

“Narendra Modi knows the skill of doing major corruption of crores of rupees instead of small corruption,” he added.

He said the Modi government is taking excuse of the secrecy clause in defense deals, which exposes its double-speak, as it is the same political party which had raised questions on Bofors deal, in which it failed to prove any corruption against former prime minister Rajeev Gandhi despite ruling at the centre for seven long years.

“Since Rafale deal corruption is a serious matter, so union government should form a JPC for probe of Rafale scam without any further delay,” he said.

The Congress has decided to take the Rafale deal scam to the people, for which it would organise nationwide rallies at district headquarters from September 5 to 15.

When asked what his party would do with the Rafale deal if it comes to power, Gohil said that the Congress government would observe transparency in the deal and negotiate for competitive bidding prices for purchase of Rafale aircraft.

Former Congress ministers Shanti Dhariwal, Bharat Singh, Ramgopal Bairwa and Pramod Bhaya, and district Congress president Ravindra Tyagi were present at the press meet.

KOTA: