All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that only a formal consent was to be given by the ruling BJP Government at the Centre to the Rafale aircraft deal done during the UPA rule ; but surprisingly, the ruling BJP Government at the Centre cancelled the deal and signed a new one.
He was addressing a programme after inaugurating the Congress party’s State unit headquarters at Shankar Nagar here.
The AICC Chief said the UPA government earlier had done a deal with French Government for Rs 540 crore per Rafale aircraft. The new deal surprisingly was struck for purchasing the same aircraft at thrice the price i.e. at Rs 1,600 crore, he said. The AICC Chief also criticized Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly lying in the parliament that there was a pact with France not to disclose the price of the deal.
Time will soon come when truth behind the deal will come to fore, he said.
The AICC Chief also charged that the hard earned money of small and medium scale businessmen was in the form of Demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) was used for loan waiver of Rs 2,50,000 crore of 15 corporates.