SHILLONG: All India Congress Committee spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday tore into the NDA government at the Centre over the alleged Rafale scam saying in the next year’s Lok Sabha election, ‘people of the country will be on one side and Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will be on another’.
Addressing a press conference here in the city on Tuesday, Gogoi said the Rafale scam is an example of squandering ‘national interests’, causing loss to the public exchequer and promoting a culture of “crony capitalism” at the cost of public sector undertaking.
In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced India’s decision to buy 36 French-manufactured Rafale fighter jets from Dassault.
The fighter jets were chosen in 2012 during the tenure of the UPA government to upgrade India’s ageing fleet. The UPA’s original plan was to buy 18 jets off-the-shelf and 108 more to be assembled in India by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited or HAL in Bengaluru.
In January 2016, the NDA government confirmed order of 36 jets and under the defence deal, Dassault and its partners, engine-maker Safran and electronic systems-maker Thales, would share some technology with the Defence Research and Development Organisation, some private sector companies and HAL under the offsets clause.
On Tuesday, Gogoi pointed at the loopholes in the deal saying the price of each jet as per the international bid opened on December 12, 2012, was Rs 526.10 crore and 36 aircraft would have cost Rs 18,940 crore.
He denounced PM Modi saying in 2015, he announced emergency off-the-shelf purchase of 36 aircraft in Paris for Euro 7.5 billion, or Rs 1670.70 crore per aircraft, that is Rs 60,145 crore for a fleet of 36.
“This price is apparent from the Annual Report 2016 of Dassault Aviation and from the press release of Reliance Defence Limited,” he said and asked Modi to explain why an extra amount of Rs 41,205 crore is being paid from public money.
Gogoi also questioned the decision to buy only 36 aircraft when the Indian Air Force needed 126. Also, “when PM Modi announced the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft on April 10, 2015, no mandatory prior approval of Cabinet Committee on Security was taken at the time of announcing the purchase”.
“Mandatory requirement of Defense Procurement Procedure for Price Discovery through the instrumentalities of Contract Negotiation Committee and Price Negotiation Committee were not followed by the PM,” he added.
Modi also bypassed HAL and gave the technology knowhow to a private company with no experience in manufacturing fighter aircraft.
Supreme Court advocate and Swaraj Abhiyan leader Prashant Bhushan said on Monday the Rafale deal is a bigger scam than Bofors during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure.
