Media report on ‘middleman’ in Rafale deal: Cong targets govt

The Congress on Friday attacked the federal government over the 2015 deal for the Rafale jets after a French media outlet reported {that a} intermediary had equipped confidential paperwork referring to inside deliberations of the Indian negotiating group to Dassault Aviation – the producer of the fighter plane.
The Congress assault on the federal government got here after French on-line investigative journal Mediapart reported that Sushen Gupta, chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate within the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case, had equipped labeled paperwork to Dassault Aviation on the actions of the Indian negotiating group.
The outlet had earlier reported that Dassault Aviation had paid at the very least Euros 508,925 in opposition to an bill for Euro 1 million raised by an Indian agency managed by Gupta.
Senior Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and get together common secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out on the Prime Minister, placing out near-identical tweets and asking him to reply “who took money in the Rafale corruption scandal, who deleted the anti-corruption clauses in the contract and who gave middlemen access to key Defence Ministry documents”.
Meanwhile, Congress communication division in-charge Randeep Surjewala reiterated the get together’s demand for an unbiased probe into the Rafale deal, alleging that the most recent disclosures have confirmed that that there was “massive corruption”, “treason”, “loss of at least around Rs 21,000 crores to the public exchequer” and “criminal breach of national security” within the plane deal.
Surjewala requested whether or not it was appropriate that the ED had recovered “secret Defence Ministry documents” from Gupta throughout a raid on March 26, 2019. Quoting the Mediapart report, Surjewala mentioned the paperwork recovered from Gupta included the “benchmark price document” of September 2015, the “record of discussions” by the Indian negotiating group, the “excel sheet of calculations” made by the Defence Ministry and competitor agency Eurofighter’s counter supply of a 20 per cent low cost to the federal government.
“Isn’t this treason? Why did the Modi government then not take action against Dassault, the political executive or the Defence Ministry officers who leaked the documents?” he requested.
Surjewala additionally identified that the Defence Ministry had insisted on an anti-corruption clause within the inter-governmental settlement — which was opposed by the French authorities and Dassault Aviation.
“Were the anti-corruption clauses deleted to escape responsibility from bribery and commission to be paid in the Rafale deal? Why was the deletion of anti-corruption clauses approved by the Prime Minister and the Government despite the Defence Ministry’s insistence upon including it in the inter-governmental agreement?” the Congress chief mentioned.