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Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi speaking at the press conference that was organised by the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee, in Dimapur on Sunday.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Sep. 2: Congress MP (Lok Sabha) from Assam Gaurav Gogoi on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘compromising the security of the country while hiding behind closets of secrets.’ He was addressing a press conference at the Tourist Lodge in Dimapur concerning the Rafale controversy.
In 2015, Modi announced that India would purchase 36 French Rafale fighter jets in a defence deal with France, when originally under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government it was informed that 126 fighter jets were meant to be bought for India’s defence, according to the Congress leader.
“Unilaterally, Modi compromised the security of the country by bringing down the number of jets to 36,” Gogoi said.
The claim about the Rafale scam, according to the Congress, is that a loss of INR 41,205 cr. of public money had been procured by purchasing an INR 526 cr. aircraft for INR 1670 cr. per jet.
While the initial price per aircraft of the 126 Rafales as per the international bid that opened on Dec. 12 2012 during UPA-Congress govt comes to INR 526.10 cr. per aircraft, 18 aircrafts were to come in ‘fly away’ condition from France. 108 aircrafts were to be made in India by public sector undertakings (PSU), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., (HAL) ‘with transfer of technology.’ At this price, 36 aircrafts would have cost INR 18,940 cr. and not INR 60,145 cr., it was informed.
According to a statement from the Nagaland Pradesh Congress Council (NPCC), the mentioned price is apparent from the annual report of 2016 of Dassault Aviation and from the press release of Reliance Defence Ltd.
Gogoi also claimed at the press conference that the purchase was done by Modi without the involvement of the Defence minister and the consent of the Foreign minister while no Cabinet committee had knowledge of approval to the deal.
“This only raises a lot of scepticism and questions. The prime minister is not a defence expert...the money used to purchase the jets is not the government’s money. It is the public’s money,” he said.
The press release from the NPCC also stated that while the prime minister and Defence minister both refused to divulge the inflated price of 36 Rafale aircrafts claiming ‘secrecy clause,’ the agreement between India and France had no such clause on non-disclosure of commercial purchase price.
‘Moreover, UPA had disclosed the price of Dassault Aviation made Mirage aircraft, as also Sukhoi aircraft and other defence purchases on the floor of the Parliament. The Congress questions of what Modi and the Defence minister are hiding and the refusal to reveal the price reeks of a scam,’ it stated.
The NPCC also questioned ‘why Modi reduced the number of fighter aircrafts required for Indian Air Force from 126 to 36? Citing that the 36 Rafales would come in September 2019 and the last aircraft by 2022, that is eight years after the decision to purchase in April, 2015. With looming threats from China and Pakistan, does it not compromise national security and defeat the emergency purchase argument?’
According to the statement, INR 36,000 cr. ‘offset contract’ was snatched from HAL, and Reliance got ‘defence offset contract’ of INR 30,000 cr. and ‘life cycle contract’ of INR 1 cr. ‘In the biggest instance of crony capitalism, offset-contract worth INR 30,000 cr. was given to a private company, Reliance Defence Ltd.,’ it stated.
Gogoi pointed out that the new company has never “even made a jet wheel” and questioned why the Modi government allowed that the ‘offset contract’ worth INR 30,000 cr. be given to a company that had zero experience in manufacturing fighter aircrafts, by passing the public sector undertaking, HAL, which is the only company in India with decades of experience in manufacturing fighter aircrafts.
“There are no records of any cancellation of the HAL contract and the change to the 10-day old Reliance Defence Ltd,” he said.
While the Congress party has raised multiple questions on the Rafale scam, Gogoi said that the Reliance Defence Ltd., had been ‘intimidating’ Congress leaders by serving legal notices.
Gogoi took examples of big businessmen in the country like Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya who have come under much scrutiny for embezzlement of crores of rupees “but all are still walking free and taking citizenships in different countries.”
“This is a betrayal of the Indian people’s state and district by Modi. People of India have a right to know where their money is going,” he said claiming that the prime minister was personally involved in the scam.
The Congress has also stated that the prime minister and Defence minister have been deliberately ignoring the 20% price reduction offer and have even refused fresh bidding for the lowest price.
“In the original invited tender by UPA-Congress, two fighter aircrafts were found equal on all technical fronts i.e., ‘Rafale’ and ‘Eurofighter Typhoon’. In the financial bid, Rafale became L1. Eurofighter Typhoon admittedly wrote a letter dated July 4, 2014 to the then Defence minister, offering to reduce the price by 20%,” it was stated.
“Once Modi decided to make a fresh purchase, the party questions as to why both companies, Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon have not been asked to bid afresh through ‘inter governmental agreement’ (IGA) route so as to arrive at the lowest price in favour of public exchequer? Why did PM Modi violate this cardinal principle that would have benefitted India’s public treasury?” according to the press release.
“A common person would also feel that something has gone wrong with the Rafale deal and Modi’s time is running up to evade any questions,” Gogoi said, adding that a joint parliamentary committee should be set up if the BJP government has nothing to hide.
Speaking briefly at the press conference, the president of the NPCC, K Therie said that the Rafale scam is one of the biggest scams since the independence of India, alluding that the BJP had carried out many scams but the Rafale was a “major one” and that the “culprits need to be caught.”
