Rahul tears into PM Modi on Rafale deal
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asserted that Prime Minister Modi will never agree to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the Rafale purchase as it will expose his deal with a "crony capitalist" who he tried to benefit.
"It is a clear cut case of benefiting this industrialist who owes banks Rs 45,000 crore, who has no experience of making aircraft, and opened a factory for the purpose just a few days before the Rafale deal.
As against this, the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has 70 years of experience of making aircraft; it also has no debts to pay and has thousands of engineers on its payroll, he said.
Rahul held a Press conference at the end of his 24-hour notice to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to set up a JPC to establish who is
Earlier in the day, he tweeted to Jaitley: "Less than 6 hrs left for your deadline on the Rafale JPC to lapse....Young India is waiting.’’
He said all that the nation wants to know is why the aircraft worth Rs 520 crore was bought for Rs 1600 crore. The price of Rs 520 crore a piece was finalised by the UPA government for 126 fighter jets while Modi made a deal to buy 36 pieces of the same aircraft at the rate of Rs 1600 crore a piece.
Rahul said Prime Minister Modi's one-point programme, unlike the erstwhile 20-point programme (of the Congress), is aimed at "how to help crony capitalists." He alleged a quid pro quo equation with 15-20 crony capitalists, as he keeps lining their pockets, and they then in turn "market brand Modi."
He also tore apart Jaitley's lie that the UPA's deal was for an aircraft without weaponry for little use in a war while the one bought by the NDA government is loaded with the requisite weaponry. He silenced the reporter who cited this argument in support of the government's case with the joint statement issued by India and France on April 10, 2015.
Rahul pointed out that the joint statement clearly says that the aircraft will be supplied in flyaway condition "with associated system and weaponry in the same configuration as tested and approved by the Indian Air Force."
When another reporter sought to quote PM Modi, Rahul shot back that there is a long list of Modi's promises like Rs 15 lakh in every Indian's bank account, doubling farmers' income, bullet train and so on. "We don't take them seriously but we will certainly catch his lies, be it on wiping out black money and terrorism and, in this case, of putting government money in a crony capitalist's pocket...Our job is to show the truth to the public," he said.
In reply to a question, Rahul said the Congress has a record of running the governments efficiently while Jaitley and Modi have destroyed the economy. The NPAs (non-productive assets) of banks were just Rs 2.5 lakh crore when the UPA government stepped down, while it is now over Rs 12 lakh crore, he underlined.