‘Gayab ho gaya’: Rahul’s dig at Modi govt on Rafale papers
Friday, 08/03/2019
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NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday challenged Prime Minister Narenda Modi to face an investigation over alleged wrongdoing in the Rafale fighter jets deal, and said the new motto of the government should be “gayab ho gaya” (gone missing), a day after the Centre told the Supreme Court that some documents related to the deal were stolen from the defence ministry.
Gandhi’s comment s drew a swift counter-attack from Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Arun Jaitley, who said neither the Supreme Court nor CAG of India had found anything amiss in the deal, adding that no “dynast” could claim to be above such institutions.
“Why can’t a probe be ordered against the Prime Minister for the ~30,000-crore scam when an investigation has been initiated into the theft of official documents related to the Rafale jet deal?” Gandhi asked at a press conference.
“Why isn’t the PM allowing an investigation against himself if he is not guilty?” Gandhi said. “Why did he refuse a JPC probe? If there is nothing wrong in the deal, then let there be an investigation. Modi should say he is not afraid of any probe and allow investigation into the deal,” he added.
The allusion to ~30,000 crore is the estimated value of the offset deals offered to Indian suppliers by Rafale-maker Dassault Aviation of France. One of the suppliers is Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence, with which Dassault has forged a joint venture.
On Wednesday, attorney general KK Venugopal said some documents that had been stolen from the defence ministry by “present or former employees” had been affixed to a petition seeking a review of the SC’s December verdict rejecting a court-monitored probe into the Rafale deal.
