Maharashtra CM Fadnavis refutes Congress allegations on Rafale

HYDERABAD: As part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s blitzkrieg against Congress’ allegations of impropriety in the Rafale deal, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed a press conference at the party’s office in Nampally. Fadnavis is one of nearly seventy senior BJP leaders who held such press conferences about the issue across the country.

Fadnavis, who was sent by his party to Hyderabad, claimed that there were no procedural lapses in the deal’s execution, and the fighter jets had been bought at a better price than the French company had sought a few years ago.  

He cited excerpts of the recent Supreme Court judgement to refute Congress’ allegations. 
“After the Kargil war, the Vajpayee government decided to buy 26 combat aircraft. We had realised that the country did not have enough of them to stave off a simultaneous attack by Pakistan and China,” he recalled. 

Fadnavis claimed that it was the subsequent UPA government which had introduced the an offset clause in the defence procurement procedure.

“But a process which had begun in 2001 did not conclude even in 2014, leaving the country vulnerable to outside threats. Hence, PM Narendra Modi government, immediately after coming to power, decided to go for a government-to-government contract with France. There were no middlemen like there were in the Bofors scam during Rajiv Gandhi’s time,” he explained.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, along with senior party leaders have claimed that there had been impropriety in the Rafale deal. The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed petitions filed by senior Congress leaders seeking a probe into the matter.  However, on Saturday, the Centre sought correction in the judgment, which refers to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Paragraph 25 of the judgment states that pricing details were shared with the CAG and the report was examined by the PAC. 

The Opposition, however, questions the very existence of a CAG report cited by the Supreme Court.