In a fresh attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘waving off’ the objections raised by different Ministries on Rafale fighter jet deal, the Congress on Friday reiterated its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe on the issue.
“Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman now disclose all the full facts to Parliament ? “Only a JPC can investigate the Rafale Scam,” said Congress communication in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala along with Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress leaders of both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha.
Addressing mediapersons outside Parliament, leaders charged that Modi government is doing everything to hide the ‘Rafale scam’ and added that the government’s acts losses crores of rupees to the exchequer and compromising national security.
“Modi government has gone to an extent of even submitting false affidavits to the Supreme Court to hide the truth of Rafale scam. Therefore, we have always believed that JPC is the only appropriate medium to look into the matter,” said Mr Azad.
Echoing this, Mr Kharge said, “Mr Modi is lying to Parliament and the Supreme Court. They submitted false affidavits regarding CAG Report and is claiming to have gotten a clean chit from Supreme Court.”
Releasing the documents to prove the claim, Mr Surjewala said Rafale file notings reveal that Prime Minister increased the benchmark price from 39,422 crore to 62,166 crore.
“This fact was also confirmed in November, 2018 by Sudhanshu Mohanty, Head of Finance, Ministry of Defence (uptil May 2016), who spilled the beans and indicted the Modi Government.”
He also alleged that the Prime Minister waived the ‘Advance and Performance Bank Guarantee and Sovereign Guarantee’.
“Objections on the Defence Ministry file reads, “No Advance and Performance Bank Guarantee has been obtained from Dassault Aviation and the advance payments made prior to delivery are not secured.” said Mr Surjewala.
He also charged that on December 9, 2015, Law Ministry flagged the issue of ‘No Bank Guarantee, Sovereign Guarantee’ by French Government and noted the concern that the deal involves huge payouts from public exchequer without actual delivery in form of advance payments.
Narrating the sequence of events, he said, on March 7, 2016, the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar refused to opine or accept the ‘Letter of Comfort’ in lieu of the ‘Bank- French Government Guarantee.’
“On August 18, 2016, ‘Air Acquisition Wing’ of Defence Ministry put up a note stating that “Bank Guarantees may be insisted from French as required under our procedure and Indian side may bear Bank Guarantee charges,” the Congress spokesperson said.
He pointed out that on August 23, 2016, Law Ministry again reiterated to the Defence Ministry about requirement of ‘French Government-Sovereign Guarantee’ as a condition of Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP):
“However, on August 24, 2016, i.e. the very next day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), accepted the ‘Letter of Comfort’ and waived off the condition of ‘Bank Guarantee, French Government Sovereign Guarantee”. alleged Mr Surjewala.
He also said the Prime Minister ignored the ‘Maintenance Terms and Conditions’ and quoted “the Maintenance Terms and Conditions including PBG (Performance Based Guarantee) of 36 Rafale IGA was not better than that of 126 MMRCA bid”
“The file also reads “the delivery schedule of 36 Rafale IGA was not better than that of 126 MMRCA bid.”Mr Modi proceeded despite delivery delays, compromising national security preparedness”, said the Congress leader.
Taking on the Union Government, Mr Surjewala said that the Defence Ministry also noted in their files that “as per the prices reflected in Dassault’s financial results, it has sold Rafale at a cheaper rate to Qatar and Egypt as compared to India.”
“The entire spectrum of deception lies at the doorstep of the Prime Minister, who overruled the objections raised by the ‘negotiations team’ in Rafale deal”, the Congress said. (UNI)
