Accusing the Narendra Modi government of “ever-shifting statements”, claiming it is a “gross violation of mandatory procedures”, Swaraj Abhiyan founder Prashant Bhushan, along with former union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, pointed out several discrepancies in the Rafale aircraft deal on Wednesday, 8 August, at the Press Club of India in New Delhi.
Prashant Bhushan while speaking to The Quint pointed out three major issues in the Rafale deal.
Bhushan also pointed out that the Reliance Defence and Aerospace got registered just 10 days before it signed the Rafale contract with the French company, Dassault Aviation.
The government passed the buck to Dassault Aviation saying that they chose to go ahead with a joint-venture with Reliance Defence Ltd.
But Shourie pointed out that as per the Defence Offset Guidelines, no offset partner can be decided without the knowledge of the defence minister.
Reliance, as a company, is running under a huge debt and cannot be expected to complete the project in time, said Shourie. He further added,
Reliance Defence and Aerospace issued a clarification on the allegations made against it on the Rafale deal saying,
To substantiate the above allegation, Bhushan provided two documents. The first document stated that the Rafale aircraft price as claimed by the MoS Defence was Rs 670 crore per aircraft.
In response to a question asked in the Lok Sabha, 18 November 2016, on the acquisition of fighter aircraft, the MoS, Defence stated that,
The second document, a press release by the Reliance Defence and Aerospace, dated 16 February 2017, shows the total price of the deal at about Rs 60,000 crores for 36 aircraft, or Rs 1,660 crore per plane. This is more than double the price of the aircraft under the earlier 126 aircraft deal.
According to the Reliance document, the price per aircraft is almost Rs 1,000 crore higher than the price quoted by the government in the Parliament on 18 November 2016.
“The Bofors was nothing compared to the Rafale scam, I can tell you as a person who covered it,” said veteran journalist and politician Arun Shourie.
Shourie, who served as the Minister of Communications in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, claimed that Rafale deal is a massive scandal which jeopardises national security. “PM Narendra Modi's own core team was kept in the dark.”
Senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan called the deal a case of “criminal misconduct”.
The three leaders also launched a full frontal attack on the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Defence, saying that the company which was “under Rs 8,000 crore in debt and had no experience in making aircraft” was given the contract rather than Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL).
Reiterating Shourie’s claims, former BJP stalwart Yashwant Sinha said, “CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) should conduct an audit of Rafale deal and submit a report within 3 months. Bofors pales into insignificance as compared to Rafale.”
As a reaction to the allegations raised by Bhushan, Shourie and Sinha, the Union Minister Arun Jaitley said:
‘I have seen today another attempt at maligning the Government by spreading falsehood and paddling fabricated facts regarding the 2016 Inter-Governmental Agreement for the procurement of Rafale fighter aircraft.’
‘The unsubstantiated allegations against the Government constitute nothing but reprocessed lies by forces increasingly desperate to prove their relevance. The Government had already responded effectively to each and every distortion and misinformation on the issue.’
Read the full post below:
Here is the complete text of the clarification issued by the Reliance Defence and Aerospace.
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