Team Herald
PANJIM: The opposition Congress on Tuesday charged that the ghost of the Rafale deal will keep haunting the legacy bearers of former Defence Minister late Manohar Parrikar till the truth comes out.
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With the sensational revelations made by the French news portal “Mediapart”, which had now brought to the fore the existence of a middleman, payment of commission and red flags shown by the French Anti-Corruption Agency Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA) in the Rafale Deal, State Congress president Girish Chodankar said that it was now pertinent to investigate the role of former Defence Minister late Parrikar especially in context to the audiotape leak.
The revelations made in the leaked audio tape that the secret files of the controversial Rafale Deal were in the cupboards of the then Defence Minister Parrikar gathers significance and importance once again after the fresh revelations by the French Agency, Chodankar said.
“Former Defence Minister always appeared uncomfortable in replying to questions pertaining to the Rafale Deal. He was in Goa selling fish from a government fish stall on the day when the Rafale Deal was fixed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Paris. His overall behaviour regarding the multi crore deals always remained suspicious,” Chodankar added.
The pro-active BJP government at the Centre as well as the State, which quickly uses investigative agencies such as CBI, ED, NIA and others against the Opposition, remained silent and completely ignored the revelations made in the leaked tape that the secret files of the Rafale Deal were in the custody of Parrikar. This formula was adopted by the ruling BJP with a fear of strong retaliations from Parrikar, Chodankar said.
The French Investigative Agency has now revealed that after signing of the deal in 2016, Dassault, the manufacturer of Rafale fighter jets paid 1.1 million euro to a middleman allegedly Defsys Solutions. The deal was to buy 36 Rafale aircrafts for almost Rs 60,000 crore, Chodankar said.
“There is a saying “Truth Always Prevails”. The truth was revealed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi with a slogan “Chowkidar Chor Hai”. Now once again the words of Rahul Gandhi have come true. It is loud and clear that huge commission was paid to a middleman after which all was not well with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar,” Chodankar said.
“We once again urge that the BJP government at the Centre must accept the demand of Congress to investigate the matter through Joint Parliamentary Committee,” Chodankar said.
