The Congress on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on the controversial Rafale deal after claiming that fresh documents revealed that Mr. Modi had facilitated “a sweetheart deal” between Dassault Aviation and Reliance Defence.
“Undisputed evidence now corroborates brazen ‘crony capitalism’ and ‘quid pro quo’ by the Modi government in the multi-crore Rafale scam,” Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala told reporters here.
The ‘fresh documents’ that the Congress referred to are minutes of the meetings of two trade unions, referred to as Central Works Council or CCE in France.
“The minutes of the meetings held on May 11, 2017, between two such trade unions and Dassault Aviation’s COO Loik Segalen lift the lid off the murky sweetheart deal of ₹30,000 crore,” Mr. Surjewala said.
French labour laws make it compulsory for companies with more than 50 employees to set up a CCE that has a role in the financial management of the company as well as in social and cultural activities of employees.
“[In] the minutes of the meeting with one such union, CGT, Dassault Aviation’s COO Loik Segalen is quoted as saying that ‘it was imperative and mandatory for Dassault-Aviation to accept this counterpart in order to obtain the export contract Rafale India’,” Mr. Surjewala said.
As per the minutes of Mr. Segalen’s meeting with another trade union, CFDT, he states that “this is the inevitable consequence of the Rafale India contract” which required Make in India’ to be signed.
Observing that the Rafale scam was getting “murkier and muddier” by the day, the Congress spokesperson said that it was now time for the Prime Minister to break his silence on the deal. Mr. Surjewala asserted that “very soon” all Opposition parties across the country would campaign against the Rafale deal in “one voice and move in one step.”
“The simple question that Modi ji needs to answer: ‘Are you PM of India or PM of Anil Ambani’? Are you chowkidaar’ (watchman) of India or are you the chowkidaar of business interests of Reliance group of Anil Ambani,”asked Mr Surjewala.
French investigative publication, Mediapart, too had referred to these summary following which Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had done a press conference last week.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, in a blog described him as a “Clown Prince” and accused him of lying. The Congress hit back by calling him a ‘court jester’.
“These are hollow rants of a Court jester. Mr. Jet-lie is trying to seek complete lost relevance in the Modi Sultanate. India needs a Finance Minister not a babble blogger,”sad Mr Surjewala.
