NEW DELHI: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday took on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attacking the Congress for “shameful” act of exposing Prime Minister Modi’s hand in the huge Rafel combat aircraft purchase scam.
“Dear RM (Raksha Mantri), what’s shameful is your boss silencing you,” he tweeted, asking her to otherwise answer three questions she skipped in an official Press conference here on Friday.
He remains focused on Modi’s personal corruption dug out by his party as he wants to use the charge of compromising the national security just to help “one businessman” in the Gujarat elections.
Rahul urged the defence minister in his tweet “to please tell us:
1. Final price of each Rafale jet?
2. Did PM take CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) permission before announcing purchase in Paris?
3. Why PM bypassed experienced HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) & gave the deal to AA rated businessman with no defence experience?”
He is asking these question because the deal clinched by PM Modi for 36 aircraft costs Rs 1570.8 crore per aircraft, which is three time the price of Rs 526.1 crore negotiated by the UPA government to purchase 126.
The Congress is also faulting Modi for damaging the interests of the public sector HAL that would have acquired the technology under the deal negotiated by the UPA government to have indigenous capability to produce more such aircraft indigenously.
Rahul questioning why the deal given to a businessman with “no experience” is a repeat of a question he tweeted also two days ago on Thursday: “Can you explain ‘Reliance’ on someone with nil experience in aerospace for Rafale deal?” His reference was to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Limited that tied up with the French firm Dassault in October last year for a joint venture to produce the Rafale aircraft.
