Modi Govt compromised national security on Rafale deal: Azad

Raking up the Rafale deal yet again, the Congress on Friday accused the Modi Government of “compromising national security” and brewing a “huge scam” by not disclosing the purchase price of the fighter aircraft.

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also accused the Modi Government of shoddy cover-up, self-defeating assertions and deliberate lies on part of Governance to divert the scam.

Quoting from the annual report of Dassault Aviation, makers of the fighter aircraft, Azad alleged that the company sold each jet to India at Rs 351 crore higher than those sold to Qatar and Egypt 11 months ago.

Speaking to the media on the Rafale Deal, Congress leaders Azad, Jitendra Singh and Randeep Surjewala said that shoddy ‘cover-up’, ‘self-defeating assertions’ and ‘deliberate lies’ are being dished out to ‘divert’, ‘dupe’ and ‘deceive’”.

Claiming that the Modi Government’s tactics on ‘Rafale Deal’ have left more questions than answers, the Congress leaders said while 36 Rafale jets were sold to India at 7.5 billion Euros in 2016, 48 jets were sold to Qatar and Egypt at 7.9 billion Euros in 2015. “This amounted to Rs 1,670.70 crore per aircraft for India and Rs 1,319.80 crore to Egypt/Qatar. There was a difference of Rs 351 crore for each aircraft”, the Congress leaders claimed. “The Government had adopted complete opaqueness in the purchase of the Rafale fighter aircraft,” they said. Azad asserted that had the Modi Government not cancelled the deal struck by the UPA dispensation for 126 Rafale jets, it could have saved Rs 41,212 crore.

Accusing the prime minister of compromising on national security and interests, Azad asked why were only 36 fighter jets purchased instead of 126 jets for which international bids were called for.

“Is this not compromising with national security? Why are Prime Minister and defence minister hiding the purchase price (of the jets)? Is it correct that per aircraft pricing of Rafale as per bid dated 12.12.2012 (during the UPA-Congress Government) was Rs 526.1 crore as against the Modi Government’s per aircraft purchase price of Rs 1,670.70 crore?” he asked.