Modi govt undermined national security by renegotiating Rafale deal, Sitaram Yechury says

COIMBATORE: The Supreme Court’s verdict on Wednesday that the ‘leaked documents’ also would form part of the review plea in the Rafale aircraft deal case vindicated the claims of opposition parties that there had been a massive corruption underlying the deal, compromising national security, said CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

He said the CPM was for speedy hearing and disposal of the case by the Supreme Court in the interest of the country’s security.

Yechury was in the city to take part in an election campaign in support of the CPM candidate in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency, P R Natarajan.

The SC’s verdict was significant, as it said all documents which had come to light would be part of the review petition, which the Modi government was hoping would not happen, Yechury told reporters.


He said the review petition was necessary as the Centre had concealed facts and told untruths. “They said the CAG had audited the accounts and had presented the report to the parliament estimates committee which approved it. But, in fact, there was no CAG report and the chairman of the parliament committee has said on record that they received no such report,” said Yechury.

He said the Centre had made a specious plea that the documents submitted by the review petitioners were stolen and could not be considered by the SC but the court’s verdict had rejected the plea.

The renegotiation of the Rafale deal by the Prime Minister’s office, overriding the Indian negotiating team, had undermined national security, said Yechury.

“The original deal was for 126 fighter jets, but Modi’s renegotiated deal would give only 36 jets, depriving the Indian Air Force of 90 jets. Also, as per the new deal, the stipulated time for the first planes to be delivered is around 2021-2022, which would undermine the IAF’s capacity” he said.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was replaced with Ambani’s firm, which had been registered barely less than two weeks before the deal was renegotiated, as the joint-producer of the jets in India, Yechury said.

“The technology transfer and employment generation it would have brought were given up to allow crony corporates to gain,” he added.