New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday noted that the CAG report on the Rafale deal does not mention the dissent note by negotiators and said he doesn’t think its worth the paper its written on.
Gandhi’s dismissal of the Comptroller and Auditor General report came hours after the paper was tabled in Parliament. The government’s argument on price and faster delivery of Rafale fighter jets has been demolished, Gandhi said at a press conference. The only reason for the new deal is to give Rs 30,000 crore to industrialist Anil Ambani, the Congress chief alleged. The government and Ambani have rejected the Congress’ allegations on the figher jet deal with France.
“The argument given by the prime minister for the new Rafale deal was price and faster delivery. This has been demolished,” he said, citing a note by officials.
“You say there was no scam, then why are you afraid of ordering a JPC,” he said, reiterating his demand for a joint parliamentary committee to look into the deal.
The Congress attack came a day after Gandhi accused the prime minister of ‘treason’ and violating the Official Secrets Act by acting as Anil Ambani’s ‘middleman’ in the Rafale jet contract, citing an email to claim the businessman was aware of the deal days before India and France finalised it.
The BJP, however, rejected the charge, saying the email purportedly by an Airbus executive referred to a helicopter deal and not Rafale. Reliance Defence, in a statement, also refuted Gandhi’s allegation saying the ‘proposed MoU’ mentioned in the email referred to its cooperation with Airbus Helicopter.
