New Delhi: The BJP dismissed Monday as ‘completely baseless’ the allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal. The BJP stressed that the Supreme Court had rejected a demand for a probe in the purchase of the fighter aircraft. It said the CAG also found nothing wrong in the Rafale deal.
The BJP was responding to a question about the Congress’ attack on the Modi government over the bribe allegations. Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference that the opposition party made it a big issue in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but lost badly. He said the allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal were ‘completely baseless’. He suggested that a report in the French media about the alleged financial irregularity in the deal may be due to ‘corporate rivalry’ in France. Prasad noted that the Congress had raised the issue earlier too
Congress sought Monday a thorough probe in the Rafale defence deal. It demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a French media report claimed that 1.1 million euros were paid to a ‘middleman’ by the aircraft manufacturer.
“The Congress is raising the Rafale issue again. It lost in the Supreme Court. They campaigned in the 2019 polls on the Rafale issue. They threw all kinds of abuses at the prime minister and still lost. How many seats did it get,” Prasad said.
The minister noted that Sushen Gupta, the middleman whose name has cropped up in the French report on the Rafale deal, was arrested in the AgustaWestland case by the Enforcement Directorate in 2019.
In this probe, the names of many Congress leaders had surfaced, Prasad said. He accused the Congress of trying to ‘weaken’ the security forces.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) received a fleet of fighter aircraft in Rafale after 30 years, Prasad said. He added that had it been there during the time of the Balakot operation to target terrorists in Pakistan then Indian aircraft would not have to cross the borders to carry out the strike.