Congress tells PM Modi: Break your silence on Rafale deal

With fresh revelations corroborating its allegations over the inclusion of a private firm as an Indian offset partner in the Rafale deal the Congress on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for benefiting his crony asking him to break his silence on the multicrore scamCiting a report by French blog Portail Aviation Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said it reinforced the fact that Modi facilitated a sweetheart deal with Dassault Aviation to enormously and illegitimately benefit a crony friendThe French blog has put up images of documents published by two unions of Rafalemaker Dassault the CFDT and CGT and quoted Dassault Aviation Chief Operating Officer Loik Segalenn as telling the two unions that it was imperative for the company to sign an agreement with Reliance Defence to get the contract for the jetsSurjewala said the report by the French blog also corroborates former French President Francois Hollandes assertions that the Indian government proposed Reliance Defence as the partner for Dassault for Rafale deal and France did not have a choiceA complete presentation of the Make in India with the creation of the enterprise Dassault Reliance Aerospace in Nagpur was madeAccording to Segalenn it was imperative and mandatory for DassaultAviation to accept this counterpart in order to obtain the export contract of Rafale IndiaThis is the inevitable consequence of the Rafale India contract which required making Make in India to be signedA joint venture was therefore created with the Indian company to achieve this goal said Surjewala reading out excerpts of the French report translated into EnglishThis is the third confirmation after Hollande had clearly told a French outlet about Modi securing the deal for Reliance Defence he saidReferring to claims by several Bharatiya Janata Party ministers that Dassault Aviation freely chose its offset partner the Congress demanded to know why Segalenn said it was imperative and mandatory for DassaultAviation to accept this counterpart in order to obtain the Rafale India export contractObserving that neither the French nor the Indian government denied the unequivocal assertions made by Hollande the Congress demanded that Modi speak up on the issueUndisputed evidence now corroborates brazen crony capitalism and quid pro quo by Modi government in the multicrore Rafale scam Time for Modi to break his silence added SurjewalaAlleging massive irregularities in the deal that has caused huge loss to the public exchequer the Congress has been relentless in attacking Modi and his government over the deal announced by the Prime Minister in 2015The party has twice petitioned the Comptroller and Auditor General of India CAG for a special and forensic audit and also moved the Central Vigilance Commission CVC seeking a probe and seizure of relevant documents pertaining to the deal It has also been persistent in demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee JPC probeBesides questioning the inflated price of the jets the Congress has also been targeting the Centre over the propriety of a newlyfounded private company getting the Rs 30000 crore Rafale offset contract at the cost of the stateowned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd HALCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever