Countering the Congress charge of ‘conflict of interest’ vis-a-vis Rafale deal against CAG Rajiv Mehrishi, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said despite thousands of crores of public money was saved, a new falsehood is being manufactured by the opposition party on a daily basis.
Lashing out at senior Congress leaders for what he said – displaying ‘slave mentality’, the Union Minister said, “Many of its (Congress) senior leaders lack the courage and moral authority to advise the dynasts to change course”.
“The ‘slave’ mentality of senior leaders convinces them that they must only sing the song scripted by the dynast. A contrarian opinion will cost them their political career. When the dynast speaks lies, they all join the chorus,” he wrote wrote in his Facebook blog.
Seeking to clear the air over the CAG and conflict of interest row, Mr Jaitley said Mr Mehrishi – the present CAG – was the Economy Affairs Secretary in 2014-15 and being the senior most at that point of time, he was also designated as the Finance Secretary.
“I say this without fear of contradiction that no file or paper relating to the Rafale transaction ever reached him nor was he in any way, directly or indirectly, associated with the decision making on defence purchases. Expenditure to be incurred on purchases by various departments of the Government needs the approval of Secretary (Expenditure),” Mr Jaitey wrote.
“How many lies need to be peddled to sustain a sinking dynasty,” he said in reference to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his family.
“How many lies are necessary to be peddled to save a sinking dynasty? The contagion effect of falsehood is fairly large. It appears to have spread to other colleagues in the ‘Mahajhootbandhan’,” he wrote adding – “In relation to the Rafale deal where thousands of crores of public money has been saved, a new falsehood is manufactured on a daily basis”.
The Minister said : “The dynast knows that his Rs 500 crore vs Rs 1600 crore kindergarten argument was a fictional story and no one would ever buy it because facts don’t support it” – in reference to Mr Gandhi’s initial allegation against Rafale.
“Even before the contents of CAG report are known, a ‘Peshbandi’ attack on the institution of the CAG is launched. The dynast and his friends have in the past even attacked the Supreme Court when it rejected the writ petition on Rafale,” Mr Jaitley pointed.
He further wrote: “The entire pricing argument is factually wrong. The procedure argument that there was no Defence Acquisition Council, no CCS, no Contract Negotiation Committee is a blatant lie. The Rs 30,000 crore favour to a private company is non-existent”.
Referring to a recent media report which had ‘omitted’ the noting of the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, he said: “The use of sliced document by a newspaper is unprecedented in the history. The use of an incomplete document is certainly not in consonance with the spirit of free speech”.
“The ‘no integrity pact’ argument is belied by the fact that even in earlier purchases through inter-governmental agreement with Russia and the United States, such pacts were not there. Now without a shred of evidence, a fictional conflict of interest of the CAG is invented,” he said.
Expressing sorrow, the Minister asked how many lies are necessary to be peddled to save a sinking dynasty. Its contagion effects have spread to other colleagues in the ‘Mahajhootbandhan’.
He said India, certainly deserves better.
