Rafale deal,a sordid saga of looting of public exchequer: Gaurav Gogoi

MP Gaurav Gogoi on Monday informed that the Rafale deal, one of the biggest defence deal, is a sordid saga of compromising national security and stealing of public tax payers' money.

He recalled that the Rafale deal was actually signed with the French based Dassault Aviation during the UPA government but the earlier terms were violated when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the European country back in 2015.

The previous UPA-deal included purchase of 126 fighter aircraft to thwart any external aggression against the country and the number was decided after due consideration and assessment by the Defence Ministry and the forces.

The previous deal also agreed during UPA time, included cost of initial purchase, transfer of technology and licensed production, said Gogoi in a press conference held at Congress Bhavan on Monday morning in the state capital town.

However, in violation of the deal and "Defence Procurement Procedure", Modi following his visit to France had informed the purchase of just 36 aircrafts at a higher price.

Terming it as an unique scam, Gogoi continued that the price of each jet was Rs 526 crores and that 18 jets out of the total 126 were to be bought immediately and the remaining was to be manufactured in the country with the Public Sector undertaking- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

However, the deal was renegotiated without any prior consent with the Defence Ministry and the Foreign Ministry and that only 36 fighter jets were to be purchased at Rs 1600 crores, a huge hike of prices, claimed Gogoi.

The Rafale jets were also sold to Egypt and Qatar at a much lesser price and that the country had to endure a loss of Rs 350.9 crore for each aircraft and Rs 12, 632 crores for the total 36 aircrafts purchased, informed the son of the former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

Modi also by passed Public Sector Undertaking of HAL and gave the technology know how to a private company which has no prior experience in manufacturing aircrafts. He further claimed that the company was opened just ten days prior to Modi's visit to France.

This was a blow to the country's defence as HAL was highly experienced and would have learnt the technological know-how an designing of high power jets.

Meanwhile, ever since Rahul Gandhi had asked on record over the price hike and other relevant questions, on record, the present government has been diverting for months now and that the BJP-led government has been hiding behind Anil Ambani's company.

Surprisingly, ever since Rahul Gandhi had raised the questions, the private company is now serving legal notices to Congress MPs and informed to resist from asking tough questions, said Gogoi.

Such aggressive act is to intimidate the opposition, stifle the truth and bury the fact that "a close proximity exists between Modi and Ambani" the latter of whom has got huge benefit.

He also said the re-negotiated deal is looting of the Public taxpayers and betrayal to the Indian Defence Forces.

The purchase of 36 Rafale jets was considered to be bigger scam in scale when compared to Bofors scandal, Supreme Court Advocate and leader of Swaraj Abhiyan had said and further questioned the involvement of Anil Ambani's Reliance as well.

A report by – Phanjoubam Chingkheinganaba (Pratidin Time Correspondent)