Spearheading a protest march against the fighter jet deal here on Friday, the AICC general secretary said the UPA government planned to purchase 126 Rafale fighter aircraft from a French firm at a cost of Rs 526 crore each.

However, after the NDA government came to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inked a deal to purchase only 36 planes. “A deal has been made to buy the planes each at Rs 670 crore as against the Rs 526 crore (during the UPA tenure). With this, the present government has to pay Rs 41,000 crore more compared to the previous price negotiated by the UPA government. This is a big scam involving over one lakh crore,” he said. Further, Wasnik said India has not received even a single plane so far. “A JPC should be set up to inquire thoroughly into the modalities of the Rafale deal. How did the Prime Minister sign the deal without approval from the Cabinet,” he said.

Sanjay Dutt, AICC secretary for Tamil Nadu, wondered if Modi implemented at least one of his election promises. “He failed to keep his promise to bring black money from abroad and deposit Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of each individual. No efforts have been taken to reduce the spiralling prices of commodities,” he said.

TNCC president S Thirunavukkarasar said the Prime Minister should step down owning responsibility for the Rafale scam. “Fuel prices have gone up like never before. But there is no voice of protest against the Centre in Tamil Nadu, which has the BJP’s benami government in place,” he charged.

Congress workers led by their leaders took out the protest march from Anna Statue to South Taluk office, where they held a demonstration. The cadre took along a huge model of an aircraft placed on a van during the march to highlight the alleged scam. They also held placards with slogans condemning the central government. A similar protest led by former TNCC president EVKS Elangovan was held in Erode district.