Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday congratulated the Indian Air Force (IAF) on acquiring the Rafale fighters but continued to target the Narendra Modi government over the pricing of the aircraft and the way the deal was handled.
“Congratulations to IAF for Rafale. Meanwhile, can GOI answer: 1) Why each aircraft costs ₹1670 Crores instead of ₹526 Crores? 2) Why 36 aircraft were bought instead of 126? 3) Why was bankrupt Anil given a ₹30,000 Crores contract instead of HAL?” tweeted Mr. Gandhi.
In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Gandhi alleged irregularities and called the Rafale deal a “one of the biggest scams in post independent India”.
Apart from making it the party’s main campaign plank, he directly targeted the Prime Minister with the slogan Chowkidar chor hain (watchman is the thief). Though the Supreme Court had given a clean chit to the deal, the Congress had insisted on a joint parliamentary committee probe into the issue.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, in a separate tweet, congratulated the brave air warriors who flew in the new planes and welcomed the new addition to IAF’s fleet.
“Welcome to Rafale in India! And congratulations to braveheart of the Air Force,” Mr. Surjewala said, adding that every patriot must definitely pose a few questions.
Investigative reports by N. Ram on the Rafale deal
“Instead of Make in India why is Made in France? Why a delay of five years?” the Congress spokesperson added.
At a virtual press conference last Saturday, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had stressed that Rafale was UPA government’s choice but there were “issues” with the way NDA handled the contract.
“Why should we protest against Rafale Aircraft? Remember from day one, we said that it is a good aircraft. In fact, it was chosen by the UPA government. There is nothing wrong with the aircraft. There are other issues in the way the contract was handled,” he had said on Friday.