It was a busy day in Parliament as the controversial Rafale deal was finally discussed. ThePrint caught the two leaders — Rahul Gandhi and Arun Jaitley — as they went in for the debate.
New Delhi: The Rafale deal, which came up for debate in the Lok Sabha Wednesday, saw Congress president Rahul Gandhi tearing into the Narendra Modi government and demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe in the matter.
Gandhi’s attack was followed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s counter. Rejecting the JPC demand, Jaitley said the Congress only understood “the mathematics of money” and wasn’t bothered about “national security”.
Taking on the government, Rahul Gandhi questioned why the price of the Rafale jets were escalated from Rs 526 crore to Rs 1,600 crore.
Jaitley, who is a Rajya Sabha member, represented the government in the Lok Sabha. He said the Congress president has a “natural dislike for the truth” and has manufactured conversations in the past.
Gandhi sought permission to play an audio file claiming it had Goa CM Manohar Parrikar saying that he has the Rafale files with him at home. The Congress president also alleged that the new price that the PM negotiated received objections from a defence ministry official.
Jaitley hit back at the Congress by bringing up the Bofors scam, National Herald and the AgustaWestland cases. “If it was one case, I would have given them the benefit of doubt. But if in Bofors, National Herald and Agusta cases, the finger points to you (Congress), then three is a bit too much,” he said.
While the Congress and the BJP were busy debating Rafale, the AIADMK was protesting over the Cauvery issue. As many as 24 AIADMK members were suspended for creating ruckus in the Lok Sabha by chanting slogans and flinging torn pieces of paper.
As the allegations and counter-allegations continue, the only way out of this maze is to look for irrefutable facts, i.e. the facts which have not been refuted or could not be refuted by the opposing parties, although they had opportunity to do so. Let me point out just two (1) Dassualt Aviations, the makers of Rafale made the bid to the UPA government in 2007 and they were declared as L-1 bidders in January 2012. Yet till March 2014, the UPA made no efforts to finalize and sign the contract. Instead, A.K.Antony, the then Defence Minister put a remark : “L-1 approved, but the process by which L-1 was decided should be reviewed”. –The Congress has not refuted this so far. (2) FM Jaitley insisted in the parliament that two sets of prices were bid by Dassualt Aviation during the UPA regime – one for the simple flyway aircraft and the other for fully weaponized fighter aircraft. In the deal approved by the Modi regime price for bare aircraft is 9% cheaper and for weaponized fighter aircraft is 20 % cheaper. – The Congress has not refuted this so far. Now, if the price for 36 weaponized aircrafts in the revised deal was around Rs.58000, the cost for 126 jets, taking into account 20% mark-up, would have been around Rs.240000 crore – a stupendous amount! Add to that possible escalation, considering the man-hours imbroglio, had 108 been manufactured at HAL. Is this the reason, Mr. Antony did not sign the contract with Dassault? By the way, this also explains why Modi chose to buy only 36 aircrafts instead of 126.
1. Rafale aircrafts deal is just one instance of alleged corruption in defence deals. My question in this regard is very simple: Do Congress & other opposition parties wish that corruption in all fields, including defence deals, be curbed? Or they just wish to be in power by making allegations of corruption and win over gullible voters? 2. Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi has made serious allegations against NDA government and in particular against PM Shri Narendra Modi as regards Rafale aircrafts deal. Citizens like me are not sure that the Congress President is really against corruption. Citizens think that (a) Shri Rahul Gandhi wishes to make use of allegations of corruption to seize power and (b) he is not at all serious about curbing corruption in defence deals or about curbing use of black money in elections. 3. Citizens wish that Shri Rahul Gandhi should make a public announcement about what the Congress led government would do about Rafale deal assuming that UPA govt. comes to power after 2019 Lok Sabha election. Would the Rafale deal be renegotiated, would it be cancelled, would those who are responsible in NDA government be tried for misuse of power? These questions are in citizens’ mind and the need a straight forward answer. Would Congress president give answers in national interest? Let us how he responds to questions from citizens like me.
This should have been Raksha Mantri’s moment, leading the government’s presentation, with a dazzling command over facts and figures.