Finance Minister Arun Jaitley accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi of indulging in ‘falsehood’ as the Government on Wednesday rejected a demand in the Lok Sabha for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the alleged scam in the Rafale jet deal. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to reply to the debate on Thursday.
Speaking after Rahul, who initiated the debate on the Rafale deal in the Upper House and levelled serious charges of irregularity in the purchase of the fighters jets, Jaitley said there was no scope of JPC probe after the Supreme Court has already satisfied its “conscience” on the issue.
His speech was disrupted by continuous protests from the Congress MPs, some of whom were seen throwing paper planes, drawing the Speaker’s admonition. Even as an angry Speaker Sumitra Mahajan chided the disrupters, Jaitley said perhaps the Congress members were throwing paper planes in the memory of Euro Fighter, which was also in the race along with Rafale.
While refuting the charges of any irregularities in the Rafale deal, Jaitley kept reminding Rahul that his family has been involved in a series of defence scams such as AgustaWestland, National Herald, and Bofors and also sarcastically reminded the Congress president that as a child he used to sit in the lap of Mr Q (Bofors scam accused Ottavio Quattrocchi).
Jaitley said the Congress felt that since “its hands are already soaked in corruption”, it decided to “manufacture” a lie to defame the Modi Government which has a clean record.
Claiming that the JPC can be misused by the Congress, Jaitley said, “Remember the JPC on Bofors ... It said the kickback were winding up charges ... It whitewashed corruption.”
The Finance Minister noted that the price of ‘bare aircraft’ has been revealed and that the price of ‘weaponised’ version cannot be told as it would help India’s adversaries. He also asserted that the bare aircraft was nine per cent cheaper than the one negotiated by the UPA and the weaponised version was 20 per cent cheaper.
Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, Jaitley said, “It is a tragedy that the grand old party which was headed by the legends in the past is now headed by a gentleman who doesn’t have basic understanding of combat aircraft.”
Targeting the Congress, he also said that “conspirators” of past defence scams are now raising fingers at the Narendra Modi Government and quoted the Supreme Court judgment to say that all charges have been negated.
“There are some people who have a natural dislike for truth. Every word spoken for the last six months on this subject, including in this House (by them) are false....He has a legacy of speaking falsehood,” Jaitley said.
He said Rahul has a “natural dislike for truth” and had earlier “manufactured” his conversation with former French President, which was denied by the French Government. “We are all utterly disappointed because every word he has said has been denied by the Supreme Court. When the Supreme Court speaks on an issue, it is the last word,” the Finance Minister said.
Targeting the Gandhi family, he said some people and families understand arithmetic of money but cannot comprehend issues of national security.
Jaitley, who briefly held the Defence portfolio, said tender for buying aircraft was floated in 2007 during UPA regime and Dassault manufacturer of the Rafale aircraft was found the L1 (lowest bidder).
“In 2012 it went to the table of the then Defence Minister, who everyone knows is a simple man who wrote that Rafale is appropriate but the process through which it has become lowest bidder need to be looked into,” Jaitley said suggesting that the then Defence Minister did this under the influence of his party.