Commenting on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the controversial Rafale fighter deal, the State Congress chief Pritam Singh said that his party had raised objection on the price of the jets and not cast doubt on their quality and the efficiency.
Talking to The Pioneer on the contentious issue in the aftermath of the Supreme Court (SC) judgement in which it rejected all petitions regarding directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register FIR on alleged anomalies in the Rafale deal, the Congress leader said that he has not read the whole judgement.
He, however, added that the question remains as to why the fighter jets were purchased at such an escalated cost. Singh added that quality of the fighter jets had never been in doubt. “And it was during the Congress regime that a decision to purchase the aircraft was taken. Another question we are raising is-why just 36 aircrafts were purchased against the demand of 126 given by Indian Air Force (IAF)?”
The Congress leader said that the Congress sticks to its demand of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) be constituted to investigate the deal. He also said that selection of Reliance as an offset partner in the deal ignoring Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) remaind under cloud.
Singh said that the claim of Dassault Aviation that it has chosen Reliance as offset partner on its own is laughable as the company has no experience in aviation sector and was formed barely days before the deal.