Congress keeps up pressure on Centre over Rafale deal

Congress asked what was stopping the Centre from revealing the commercial cost of the jets and the details of the offset obligations.
Rafale Fighter Jet. | (File | AFP)
Rafale Fighter Jet. | (File | AFP)

NEW DELHI:  The Congress kept up the pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal on Friday, asking what was stopping the Centre from revealing the commercial cost of the jets and the details of the offset obligations.

Pawan Khera, Cong spokesperson
Pawan Khera, Cong spokesperson

“PM Modi cannot escape from his moral, political, legal and constitutional responsibility and accountability in the biggest defence scam of India,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, adding that the only route was to order a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe.

He cited the publicly available ‘Management Meet Note’ of ICICI bank dated February 28, 2017, saying the document yet again exposed the commercial cost of the Rafale deal and the cost of ‘Offset Contract’ and ‘Life Cycle Cost Contract’ to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence (RDL) as Rs 30,000 crore and Rs 1,00,000 crore, respectively.

The Congress leader asked that if the manufacturer, Dassault Aviation, in its annual report could reveal the price per aircraft and if Reliance Defence could do so in its press release, why was it difficult for the Centre.

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