Congress ruckus for JPC on Rafale scam

The Congress created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha on Thursday for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale fighter aircraft deal, forcing two adjournments, first for 20 minutes and then for an hour.

The House was also adjourned for ten minutes during the question hour due to the pandemonium created by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to protest at the Centre not yielding the army land in Secunderabad for a new state secretariat building.

Congress group leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised the Rafale issue during the zero hour, asserting that the national security has been compromised and the government is trying to mislead the nation in why the fighter jet's price went up three times the deal finalised by the Manmohan Singh government at Rs 526 crore per aircraft.

Describing the Rafale as "the biggest scam of independent India worth Rs 45,000 crore," Kharge pressed for a JPC to probe it and the Congress members rushed in the well with slogans and placards demanding "Constitute JPC on Rafale" and "Stop misleading Parliament and people."

Around the same time, the TRS members were also in the well raising slogans after their leader Jitender Reddy accused the Centre of partiality in releasing the army land to Andhra and Karnataka government but not to the Telangana government.

The Speaker carried on the zero hour mentions for another 15 minutes amid the ruckus, before adjourning for 20 minutes and then for an hour up to 2 pm.

Even as the Congress members agitated in the well, the party managers seem to have not coordinated action with other parties as no other party joined their protest.