New Delhi: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being directly involved in the Rafale fighter jet deal with France, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that he ran a parallel negotiation.
“We have been saying for more than a year that the Prime Minister is directly involved in the Rafale scam,” Gandhi said here while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters on Akbar Road.
“Today, The Hindu newspaper has put it in black and white. It is absolutely clear that the Prime Minister himself was carrying out a parallel negotiation with the French,” he said.
To youngsters and the armed forces, Gandhi said: “This is your money and this is about your future. And here it is absolutely clear that Modi has stolen Rs 30,000 crore of your money and given it to his friend (an Indian industrialist).”
His remarks came after The Hindu on Friday published a report: “Defence Ministry protested against PMO undermining Rafale negotiations”.
The Defence Ministry’s note, dated November 24, 2015, said the “parallel” discussions had “weakened the negotiating position” of the Defence Ministry and India’s negotiating team.
A handwritten message on the note from the then Defence Secretary asked Manohar Parrikar, who was then the Defence Minister, that “such discussions be avoided by the PMO as it undermines our negotiating position seriously”.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday, “If the newspaper wanted to bring the truth out, I would have thought it was incumbent on that newspaper to put that reply of the Raksha Mantri then also on record,” Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha.
In his reply, Manohar Parrikar asked the Defence Secretary to remain calm, and told him there was nothing to worry about, Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament.
The Congress has alleged that the NDA’s Rafale deal – for fewer jets overall but more planes in a flyaway condition – is costlier than the UPA-era deal, now scrapped.
A second allegation is that Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence, one of the jetmaker’s offset partners, was chosen under pressure from the Centre.
Pointing to a previous reply she had given Parliament, Sitharaman reminded the MPs that when “periodically, the PMO enquires about the progress of any work, that cannot be construed as interference”.
Then, she trained her guns on the Congress and the UPA.
“What was the interference by the National Advisory Council – NAC – led by Shrimati Sonia Gandhi?,” Nirmala Sitharaman said.
“Did she interfere? Was that interference? If that is interference, then talk about it.”