Veteran journalists and famous TV personality Karan Thapar has said that the statement of former President of France, François Hollande, that Indian Government had suggested the name of Anil Ambani’s company for the Rafale deal and Dassault was not given any choice possibly could be “Bofors moment” of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendar Modi.
It has not only exposed the lies of the Defence Minister Niramala Sitaraman and Arun Jaitely that it was the decision of Dassault but also showed that the Modi Government insisted that a particular organisation should be given offset making mockery of the rules.
Participating in an interaction with the journalists and journalism students under the aegis of Press Club, Hyderabad here on Saturday, Karan Thapar recalled that Modi can not question the integrity of ex-French President as he had invited him at the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations in 2016.
“This (Rafale deal episode) has higher profile than Bofors. While there was a smoking gun and money trail in Bofors scandal, here thre was a suspicion of a smoking gun now”, Karan said.
He recalled that when Swedish Radio had exposed Bofors, the Opposition led by VP Singh had effectively used it and members of all the parties barring Congress had resigned from Parliament.