LONDON: Overseas Congress leaders gathered in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in Tavistock Square in London on Sunday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and finance minister
Arun Jaitley.
Twenty-five Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK leaders, wearing tricolour sashes with photos of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his mother, UPA chairperson
Sonia Gandhi, gave speeches expressing their anger over alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter aircraft deal as well as the controversy over indebted tycoon Vijay Mallya allegedly meeting the finance minister before he fled to London owing more than Rs 9,000 crore.
They held placards saying “Modi Corruption Exposed”, “Modi’s Rafale gate”, “No farmer loan waiver, 1,30,000 crore to Rafale scam”, “Rafale cover-up in open”, “Save women, save India”, and “We demand JPC probe into Rafale scam” as well as cartoons such as one depicting Modi and
Anil Ambani next to a large elephant with the words “Where is the corruption in the Rafale deal?” They chanted: “Narendra Modi chor hai. Modi, Modi, yes papa. Rafale scam, yes papa. Modi aistifa do (Narendra Modi is a thief… Modi resign).”
IOC (UK) spokesman Sudhakar Goud said: “The Rafale scam is a European issue and that’s why we are protesting here, and Mallya is in the UK. Modi is a chowkidar of thieves, he is protecting Anil Ambani and Mallya.”
Goud slammed India’s purchase of 36 ready-made Rafale fighter jets, saying: “Reliance isn’t capable of making detergent, how can they manufacture defence? The UPA government had drafted this contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The price we were paying was approximately 520 crore a plane. Then PM Modi went to France, changed the contract from 126 planes to 36 planes, changed the price from 520 crore to 1,600 crore so the price was inflated. Twelve days before Modi went to France Anil Ambani established his defence company yet he had no experience in manufacturing defence aircraft. HAL started in 1940 and is a public sector company. So, if Modi is interested in the people of India, the deal should go to HAL. Francois Hollande has now come out and said he did not have a choice but to give the deal to Reliance. It’s crystal clear that the prime minister was involved in giving Rs 1,30,000 crore to Anil Ambani.”
The NDA government signed the controversial deal with France in 2016 and the company that became Dassault's Indian partner was Reliance Defence.
IOC (UK) president Kamal Dhaliwal said: “Mallya told Jaitley he was leaving the country. If the finance minister knew he going to flee, owing that much money to the banks, he should have called the police.”
He added that another protest over “Rafale-gate” and the Mallya scandal was planned outside the Indian high commission in London in 10 days, followed by one in Trafalgar Square.
