‘Corrupt Modi’ must go, Rahul says after fresh expose on Rafale
FRENCH WEBSITE CLAIMS INCLUSION OF PRIVATE PARTNER WAS ‘OBLIGATORY’ IN THE DEAL
Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi “corrupt” following fresh revelations by French website Mediapart that inclusion of a private defence partner from India was an “imperative and obligatory” condition for securing the Rafale jets contract.
Mediapart said the name of Reliance Defence was given to Dassault Aviation as “obligatory” offset partner.
Questioning Modi’s “deafening silence” on the issue, despite allegations of corruption directed at him, Rahul said the prime minister must resign.
“The prime minister of India is corrupt, I want to tell the youth of the nation that he is corrupt,” Rahul said at a special media briefing here.
“Allegations of corruptions are being directed at him and the prime minister is silent. He should resign if he cannot respond [to the charges],” he added.
Rahul, reading out excerpts from Wednesday’s Mediapart report on an internal Dassault document, said that the group accepted to work with Reliance as an “imperative and obligatory” condition for securing the fighter jet contract. “Rafale’s senior executive has clearly stated that choosing Anil Ambani’s company was a compensation for the purchase of Rafale.
“Earlier, former French president [Francois Hollande] had revealed that Indian prime minister had told them Reliance should get a deal. Now Dassault’s second senior-most executive has said the same thing,” said Rahul, alleging that “Modi put Rs30,000 crore (Dh300 billion; Dh14.87 billion) in his industrialist crony’s pockets.”
In its earlier report, the French website had quoted Hollande as saying that the Indian government had proposed Reliance Defence as the partner for the deal.
“There is a clear-cut case of corruption against the prime minister,” said Rahul, ridiculing the Modi government for shying away from a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the deal.
He also questioned the visit of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to France, wondering if her three-day trip that started on Wednesday was in connection with the process to justify Modi’s decision to purchase the fighter jets.
The Congress president al- leged that the visit of Sitharaman was in connection with the process to justify his decision to purchase the fighter jets.
“The Supreme Court has asked for the Rafale decision-making process. It’s quite simple really ... The PM decided. The processes to justify his decision are yet to be invented. But work has begun. Ps. In this connection, Raksha Mantri [defence minister ] is leaving for France tonight,” Rahul said in a tweet.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Union government to disclose details of the decision-making process for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in a fly-away condition from France’s Dassault Aviation.
The Congress has alleged that Modi government’s decision to purchase the jets from France has caused Rs410 billion loss to the exchequer.