Rafale deal a big scam in the country

Nellore: Congress Working Committee member PC Chacko criticised that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government violated ‘Defence Procurement Procedure’ in Rafale deal leading to a huge scam of Rs. 41,205 crore. He interacted with the media here on Friday and said that they are campaigning on the scandal across the country and are also considering to approach the Supreme Court on the scam.

Chacko described the scam as Art of Deceiving India by Modi’s government and now the Prime Minister or the Defence Ministers is not responding on the issue.

The CWC member alleged that the scam revealed a loss of Rs. 41 205 crore as the Centre had planned to purchase the aircraft at Rs 1,670 crore which costs only Rs 526 crore. He informed that price of Rafale aircraft as per international bid opened on December 12, 2012, during UPA Government, was Rs.526.10 crore.

Eighteen aircraft were to come in 'fly away' condition from France and 108 aircrafts were to be made in India by Public Sector Undertaking, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, with 'Transfer of Technology'. At this price, 36 aircrafts would have priced around Rs.18,940 crore, he explained.

On April 10, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited France and announced emergency 'off-the-shelf' purchase of 36 Rafale aircrafts for Euro 7.5 Billion (Rs. 1670.70 crore per each aircraft) that comes to Rs 60,145 crore for 36 aircrafts after reducing the number from 126 to 36, Chacko said.

This price was apparent from 'Annual Report, 2016' of Dassault Aviation and from the release of Reliance Defence Limited. Thus, he said, the Prime Minister Modi had paid an extra amount of Rs. 41,205 crore of public money without considering defence procedures in purchasing war equipment, the Congress leader charged.

When questioned in the Parliament, CWC member said they denied the details mentioning ‘secrecy clause’ about the agreement between India and France which has no such clause on non-disclosure of commercial purchase price.

“We have discussed along with 14 parties in Delhi recently and more than half a dozen PILs were filed in the Supreme Court. We are also considering legal provisions to counter this irregularity of the Government. Now we are campaigning on the misdeeds of the ruling party at grassroots,” said Chacko.

He also charged that Reliance Defence Limited was the final beneficiary with the deal who bagged an offset contract of Rs. 30,000 crore. He said the company was also allowed an additional Rs. 1 lakh crore Life Cycle Contract and questioned how the Prime Minister Modi had offered a bounty of Rs. 1,30,000 crore to a private company denying involvement of Rafale-Dassault Aviation and HAL. He charged that the Reliance Defence Limited was incorporated in Maharashtra just before 12 days of the agreements.

This is a big scam in the country and we also demanded for probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee,” said Chacko. Former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi, District Congress Committee president Panabaka Krishnaiah, senior leaders CV Sesha Reddy, Ch Devakumar Reddy, P Sitarambabu and others were present.