Modi won’t survive if Rafale probed: Rahul
Reliance rejects Congress leader’s allegations over Dassault Aviation’s investment
NEW DELHI: Alleging French defence major Dassault Aviation of paying “kickback” to secure the Rafale deal, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not survive if the “huge corruption” in the purchase was probed.
“If an inquiry starts on this (Rafale deal), Modi is not going to survive it, guaranteed,” Gandhi said at a press conference at the party headquarters here.
Reliance Infrastructure on Friday rejected allegations by
Rahul that Dassault Aviation invested Rs 284 crore in a “loss making” Indian company to secure the deal.
Reliance said the Congress was once again resorting to “blatant lies” and “distorted facts” to mount an “unwarranted campaign of calumny and falsehoods” against the Reliance Group and its Chairman Anil Ambani.
Citing two reasons for his claims, Rahul said: “One, because of corruption. Two, because it is very clear who the decision maker was. Nobody would be able to say that some general in the Air Force or the Defence Minister or some bureaucrat from the Defence Ministry. It was a deal done by Narendra Modi to give Anil Ambani Rs30,000 crore,” he said.
Rahul also said that if there was nothing to hide, Modi would have ordered an inquiry into the decision to purchase the ighter jets from France.
“If the prime minister was not involved, he would have said ‘let there be an enquiry by the CBI or the Supreme Court.’ But he is silent. He has lost his sleep because of tension because he knows he will be caught.”
Referring to Dassault Aviation’s investment, Rahul said it was the “irst instalment of kickback” that was paid by the French defence major to secure the deal.
“Dassault CEO (Eric Trappier) had claimed his company chose Reliance as its offsets partner because it had land available next to an airport. But now it has been revealed that the land was bought by the money that was invested by Dassault.
Separately, Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) leader M. Kodandaram on Friday called on Rahul and demanded 17 seats for the party in next month’s Assembly elections in Telangana.