New Delhi: Stepping up the attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, Congress President Rahul Gandhi Friday said that if there was nothing to hide Modi would have ordered an inquiry into the decision to purchase fighter jets from France.
“If an inquiry starts on this (Rafale deal), Modi is not going to survive it. Guaranteed,” Gandhi said at a press conference at the party headquarters.
Citing two reasons for his claims, the Congress chief said, “One, because of corruption. Two, because it is very clear who the decision maker was…nobody would be able to say that some general in the Air Force, or someone else. It was a deal done by Narendra Modi to give Anil Ambani Rs 30,000 crore,” he said.
Hitting out at the BJP government, Gandhi claimed that the French firm Dassault invested Rs 284 crore in the private Indian company. And the same money was used to buy the land,” he said.
The Dassault CEO Eric Trappier had recently said that the reason why the Anil Ambani company was given the contract was because it had the land near an airport.
“The CEO is lying, the big question is why a company would invest Rs 284 crore in a company with a capital of just over Rs 8 lakh and is loss making. It is clear cut that this (investment) is the first instalment of kickback given by Dassault,” said Gandhi citing a media report that the French defence major invested approximately 40 million euros or Rs 284 crore to buy stakes in a loss making company of Anil Ambani.
“So why is Dassault CEO lying, because he is trying to protect one person, the person who runs this country…Modi,” said Gandhi.
Gandhi also accused Modi of “removing” CBI chief Alok Kumar Verma because he was looking into documents pertaining to the deal that could “nail” the prime minister.
IANS