Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday demanded that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his party apologise to the nation for ‘trying to mislead the nation’ on the controversial Rafale combat aircraft deal and thereby ‘compromising’ the country’s security.
Defending the deal, he said the Congress was resorting to ‘falsehoods’ because it could not digest the fact that the defence pact for purchase of the aircraft was done ‘without any middleman or kickbacks’ unlike the Bofors gun deal and Agusta Westland copters contract. “Mr. Gandhi has been uttering lies even on the international stage, bringing down the prestige of the country and now the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale has clearly exposed his falsehood,” he said at a press conference at the BJP office here, along with State BJP chief K. Laxman.
Modi’s move
Seeking to explain why Prime Minister Modi had to enter into a “Government-to-Government” deal to purchase the combat aircraft, the Chief Minister said that after the Kargil War, the Government realised it had to equip the Armed Forces, especially the Air Force, with latest jets to handle twin threats from Pakistan and China.
He accused the UPA government of ‘dilly-dallying without even opening the tenders’ for several years even after identifying what the combat aircraft needed. After the Indian and French Governments signed a pact in 2016, the aircraft would be flying in from next year, Mr. Fadnavis said. He said that with the SC “approval”, the Congress allegations had been washed away. Setting up of a joint parliamentary committee would serve no purpose, he said, adding that revealing the price of each jet would be jeopardising defence secrecy.
Dharna today
The BJP said it would conduct a protest in front of Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday. On December 19, a memorandum addressed to the President would be submitted at the collectorates. Mr. Laxman said a three-point programme had been enunciated by party president Amit Shah to be taken up at 70 places all over the country to explain the ‘truth’ about the Rafale deal.
