Buoyed by the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale fighter jet deal issue, the Government and the ruling BJP on Friday charged the Congress with manufacturing lies and compromising with national security and said truth always holds together while “falsehood always fall apart.”
Making this assertion here, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley without directly naming Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi said falsehood was manufactured by “one family”, but they are not above the apex court.
Along with the Government, the ruling BJP also accused the Congress of making the Rafale deal look a suspect by telling lies. BJP president Amit Shah said here at a separate Press conference that the SC order was a slap on Congress chief Rahul’s politics of lies and asked him to apologise to the country and its soldiers for putting national security at risk.
The BJP president said there is no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France, and the court has upheld that in its order on Friday. It is not the job of the court to deal with the comparative details of the pricing, he said. He also hit out at the Congress president for taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying the “chowkidar” is a thief. “All thieves had gathered to call the ‘chowkidar’ a thief, but the country never believed it,” Shah told reporters.
Addressing a joint news conference with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaitley also rejected the Congress demand for Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal after the verdict. He said JPC probes into defence deals do not serve the purpose due to partisan role of political parties and gave the example of Bofors case. With reference to the Congress demand, he said “deaf will never hear an answer”.
When pointed out by the media that BJP members Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie had approached the court alleging wrongdoing in the Rs 59,000-crore deal for 36 aircraft to be bought from France in flyaway condition, Jaitley remarked they have got an answer.” He also said all allegations were rejected by the apex court on all counts.
Attacking Rahul without naming him, Jaitley said the falsehood lasted only a “few months” and has “lowered the credibility of its creator” adding “disruptors have lost and on all counts”. He said somebody has to answer the delay in finalising the Rafale jet deal earlier even as the IAF needed a modern aircraft.
Elaborating upon it, he said after short-listing Rafale jet why was the negotiations virtually stopped if not abandoned in 2012 thereby compromising national security. He termed the Congress allegations about the deal as imaginary and termed them fiction writing. Asserting that all the necessary procedures were followed before the inking the deal in 2016, Jaitley said 74 meetings were held and even the Supreme Court said all processes were adhered to.
“The entire imaginary thought process, fiction writing that one man made the decision, there was no price negotiation committee, there was no contract negotiation committee, no Defence Acquisition Committee (DAC), no CCS, was fiction writing going on? This was fiction writing which was compromising with national security,” Jaitley said.
He then went on to say in democratic traditions if a political leader is found making false charges, he has to resign and in case holding public office even presidents are impeached for telling a lie. He demanded the Congress to come out clean in Parliament and said the Government on Friday too said it was ready for a debate on the Rafale deal. Jaitley said his party will keep demanding a discussion on the issue in the coming days during the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament.
Charging the Congress with harming national interest, he said the accusations about the deal brought it under the cloud. Civil servants and defence officials in future will think 10 times before taking decisions and these charges have also hurt larger interests, Jaitley said.
Defending the decision to buy 36 jets through a Government to Government deal with France, the Finance Minister said the Government could not have waited. He then quipped, “We would have waited for the cows to come home and the enemy reached our borders.”
On charges of price of the Rafale jets, Jaitley said his Government negotiated a deal at lower prices for the basic aircraft and the weaponised aircraft. He then hit back at Congress and said people incapable of understanding serious issues rely on slogans. He also said there are precedents of buying 36 jets or two squadrons of jets. The IAF had gone in for such purchases in 1980s for Mirage jets and Mig series of aircraft.
Sitharaman said the apex court gave a decision on three broad issues. The three broad issues are decision making process, pricing and the choice of the Indian Offset partner (IOP). On each one of these the Supreme Court has clearly spoken and gave reasons why the writ petition does not hold anymore.
“On the process, I would just like to say that clearly stating that the process has been complied with, the Supreme Court has clearly said that the nation cannot afford to be unprepared in a situation where our adversaries have acquired higher capabilities emphasisning on the need for the sense of urgency in the purchase,” the Minister said.
Notwithstanding the security between India and France which provides for protection of classified information such as pricing details, these details too were made available to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope, she said.