No pvt firm involved in Govt-to-Govt deal, reiterates FinMin
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday termed Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s allegations in Rafale deal as “ignoramus”, saying other Congress leaders are also parroting the allegations to “satisfy the ego of an ‘ill-informed gentleman.”
Addressing the media on Wednesday evening after the Cabinet meeting, Jaitley reiterated that the price of the Rafale Jet negotiated by the NDA is nine per cent lesser than the UPA’s deal and claimed that it is 20 per cent lesser considering “weapon-to-weapon” attached to the jet.
“This is a Government-to-Government deal and no private party is involved. All 36 planes straight away come from France and not even a screw is fitted in India. It is the foreign supplier prerogative to engage their Indian partners. Many Indian private firms will benefit as we wanted the state-of-the-art technology of foreign players are shared here. Be it Tata, Mahindra and even HAL, they all will get work from foreign players. It is the Congress style that buys from abroad without technology transfer. They are the ones who took bribes in Defence deals which is well documented in the case of Bofors,” Jaitley said countering the allegations raised by the Congress.
Slamming Rahul Gandhi without naming him, Jaitley added, “What can we say when the ‘gentleman’ from the dynasty is ignorant of the fact and repeating the same thing. It is proved that in dynastic parties ignorance is contagious. The party leaders have no options but to satisfy the ego of the ill-informed gentleman. Let the contagious problem remain with the Congress. Leaders like Abshishek Singhvi and all are repeating what he says.”
Earlier in the morning, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra briefed the Union Council of Ministers on the fighter aircraft deal with France in a bid to provide the leaders with facts to counter the allegations being levelled against it. Sources said the NSA and Mitra National made a detailed presentation on various aspects of the deal in the meeting, which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours.
The Ministers were informed that it was a deal between two Governments involving no private party, leaving little scope for corruption.
The security brass also highlighted the aircraft’s capability which would strengthen the Indian Air Force and make the fighter jets an asset for it. The presentation in the meeting also underscores Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to take all his allies, who are represented in the council of ministers, on board as the Government works to counter the Opposition on the issue with the Lok Sabha election being less than eight months away.