The Congress on Monday sought a probe into the Rafale deal by Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) K.V. Chowdary. In a 10-page memorandum to the CVC it demanded that all the relevant documents be seized and an FIR filed against those responsible for causing a loss to public exchequer.
An 11-member delegation, led by Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulamnabi Azad and including senior leaders like Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Jairam Ramesh, and Manish Tewari among others, handed over the memorandum to Mr. Chowdary where the party has pegged the loss at ₹41,000 crore.
“This is the biggest scam in the defence acquisition history of the country and we have asked the CVC to take cognisance and register a first information report against those guilty…It is the responsibility of the CVC to seize all the relevant documents as they could be destroyed,” Mr. Sharma told reporters.
In the memorandum, the Congress not only alleged a 300% escalation in the Rafale deal in violation of the Defence Procurement Policy but also attached former French President Francois Hollande’s statement that the government of India pushed for Reliance as a partner of Dassault Aviation, the maker of the Rafale fighters.
“Neither the French government nor the Indian government including Defence Ministry and Prime Minister have contradicted the truth of Hollande's assertions," the Congress said in its note.
“In fact, the current French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, has admitted the fact that PM Modi had asked Hollande to give ₹30,000 crore to Reliance by calling it an 'observation' in an interview to Radio J of France.”
The party also submitted former Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) chief T.S. Raju’s statement where he claimed that HAL had signed a work-share contract with Dassault.
“The government is bound to disclose the price of 36 aircraft to scrutiny by CVC, in light of the serious allegations of corruption and loss of money to the public exchequer,” read the Congress’s note that called NDA’s Rafale deal as “stark cronyism.”
The Congress’s submission to the CVC comes a week after approaching the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for a forensic audit.
“We find a strange statement [on the CAG] by the Finance Minister yesterday…They set the tone in advance for what the government would like the CAG to do,” Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi said.
On Sunday, in an interview, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the CAG would study the prices of the Rafale deal done by the NDA government and the previous one negotiated by the UPA.
Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram too targeted Mr. Jaitley for saying that “truth cannot have two versions”, referring to two “different” statements by Mr. Hollande including one where he [Mr. Hollande] said that he wasn’t aware how Dassault chose Reliance as its partner.
“‘Truth cannot have two versions’ says FM. Absolutely correct. Since, according to FM, there are two versions, what is the best way to find out which version is 'true'? Either (1) order an inquiry or (2) toss a coin. I suppose the FM would prefer to toss a coin (preferably with 'head' on both sides)!” said Mr. Chidambaram.
