BJP slaps privilege on Cong for Rafale lies

The BJP and the Congress on Monday geared to put each other’s top leaders on the mat through privilege motion on the Rafale fighter jet deal. As many as four BJP MPs have submitted a privilege notice against Congress president Rahul Gandhi accusing him of “misleading” Parliament by making “false” allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Speaker said she will look into the matter.

The Congress said it will move against Modi and Sitharaman for misleading the House. The Congress fielded former Defence Minister AK Antony to counter Sitharaman’s assertions that the secrecy clause was signed during the UPA’s tenure itself. “Prime Minister and Defence Minister misled Parliament on Rafale deal, this is clearly matter of breach of privilege,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Rahul was “behaving irresponsibly. Dragging the French President into internal politics is unfortunate,” he said, adding Rahul’s understanding of national security issues is poor.

“Since a member of the family has resorted to falsehood, the crowd around the family has no option but to collectively sing the tune of falsehood. We clearly state that Congress’ stand is not in national interest,” he asserted. 

The shadows of the No-Confidence Motion seem to have lengthened with the Congress and the BJP bracing up to defend their respective top leaders in the privilege issue. Four BJP members — Nishikant Dubey, Anurag Thakur, Dushyant Singh and Prahlad Joshi — have submitted the privilege notice against Rahul.

As soon as the Question Hour got over, Dubey said a privilege motion has been moved by his party. “Whenever Rahul Gandhi speaks, it only helps in increasing the votes of the BJP,” he said. Amid protests by Congress members, Mahajan said, “I will look into it and then let you know.”

The allegations relate to Rahul’s speech in the Lok Sabha in which he had raised the issue of a secrecy clause in the Rafale fighter jet deal with France claiming that French President told him clearly that there was no secrecy pact on Rafale between the two countries. The Congress chief had also accused the Prime Minister of benefiting “one industrialist” in the deal.

He sought all the details of the Rafale deal, including the cost of each Rafale fighter jet, accusing a huge cost escalation by the Modi Government.

Sitharaman had rejected the charges saying the secrecy pact was signed during the Congress regime in 2008 and signed by the then Defence minster AK Antony. The BJP also objected to Rahul’s comments regarding “betrayal” of the Indian Army in Doklam, and dubbed them as “unsubstantiated charges”.

On Monday, the Congress, however, accused Modi and Sitharaman of misleading Parliament and the country on the Rafale pricing issue, saying there is no clause in the 2008 pact between India and France that prevents the Government from divulging price details of the aircraft.

Former Union Ministers Antony and Anand Sharma besides Surjewala issued a joint statement claiming the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister had sought to “lie” on the floor of Parliament.

Antony said the Government’s claim that a secrecy clause in the pact was forcing it to not reveal price details of the deal was “totally wrong”. They have to reveal price details of each aircraft, said Antony, adding that the more they are trying to hide, the more suspicion there is about the deal.

He also said the Government cannot hide the price details of the Rafale jets as the deal has to be scrutinised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) as well as Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

“They must reveal the price details of the aircraft and they must also tell us why a company was selected as offset partner who has no experience manufacturing aircraft,” said Antony, alleging the private player has benefited by crores.

Sharma said the Government owes Parliament an explanation on why Modi and Sitharaman “misled” the nation on the price issue. “The French Government had no objection in revealing the price of the Rafale aircraft. This was conveyed by the French President to Rahul during a meeting in which I was present along with the former Prime Minister,” he said.

Asked if the Congress would give a notice of privilege motion against the Prime Minister and Defence Minister, he said, “The issue pertains to the Lok Sabha and the leader of the Congress parliamentary party will take a decision on the issue soon.”

In their statement, the three leaders said revealing the “commercial cost” of Rafale aircrafts will neither violate any “secrecy agreement” with the French Government, nor disclose any “classified or protected information”.

The Congress leaders claimed the commercial cost of the Rafale jets can be revealed in the India-French confidentiality agreement of 2008 and the scope of the agreement only extends to tactical and technical details of weaponry relating to the capability.

The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.