Pawan Khera accuses PM of interfering in Rafale deal

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, in a press release, accused the PM and NSA Ajit Doval for the Rafale scam. He alleged that Modi Govt mischievously amended the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2013 (formulated by Congress-UPA), to give huge leeway to Dassault Aviation & its French associate MBDA.

New Delhi: To make it back in the ground, Congress, yet again took a dig at the Modi Government accusing the PM and NSA Ajit Doval for the Rafale scam.

In a press release, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said,"PM Modi can brazenly use Government agencies as ‘Political Allies’ to target Opponents but cannot run away from his role in the– Rafale Scam. Brand new evidences of ‘Subverting Procedures’, ‘Naked Crony Capitalism’, ‘Compromising National Interests’, ‘Gross Impropriety’ & ‘Colossal Corruption’ have once again been exposed in the Rafale Scam."

He alleged that Modi Govt mischievously amended the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2013 (formulated by Congress-UPA), to give huge leeway to Dassault Aviation & its French associate MBDA.

"The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by PM Modi gave exceptional and unprecedented waivers to M/s Dassault Aviation and M/s MBDA in the offset contracts they signed with the Indian government." he said.

Khera underlined,"Defence Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in adebate in Parliament unequivocally stated that Government has no role in choosing Rs 30000 Cr deal for offset partner and it was done in accordance to DPP 2013. She brazenly lied to the Parliament because this DPP 2013 was amended by Modi Govt on August 2015 to benefit Dassault Aviation who has entered into a JV with Shri Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence for ‘offset manufacturing."

The UPA had set a 50% Offset Clause in Defence Contracts. This was Rs 30,000 Cr for the Rafale Deal. The Indian Negotiation Team’s (INT) final report now in public domain reveals that the initial proposal of Dassault Aviation and MBDA had nearly 88% of offset obligations loaded on to the 7th (last) year.

"It is now well known how PM Modi and NSA Shri Ajit Doval were heading parallel negotiations in the Rafale Deal and weakened the efforts of the INT. Still, the INT negotiated the fine print of the Offset obligations and reduced this from 88% to 57% for the 7th (last) year." he added.