NEW DELHI: Reiterating its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Rafale fighter jets deal, the Congress on Saturday said the scandalous expose of scam involving massive corruption and loss to public exchequer has finally been uncovered and France has already ordered a judicial probe.
Asking PM Narendra Modi to come forward and order the investigation, the party said French Public Prosecution Services has ordered an investigation into Rafale Papers for corruption, influence peddling, money laundering, favouritism on the complaint of French Anti-Corruption NGO, Sherpa.
“When the French government has accepted that there is corruption in the deal, should a JPC probe be not held in the country where the corruption took place? The facts now clearly tell and call for a thorough JPC probe into the Rafale scam. Will the prime minister, like the French, now answer to the nation and tell when the prime minister will submit his government to a JPC probe into the Rafale scam,” said Congress media cell chief R S Surjewala.
The BJP alleged that Rahul Gandhi is acting as an agent of rival defence companies and being used as a “pawn”.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also played down the appointment of a judge in France to lead a judicial investigation into the alleged corruption and favouritism in the Rs 59,000 crore deal, saying the development was outcome of a complaint by an NGO and should not be seen as a matter of corruption.
“The way Rahul Gandhi is behaving, it will not be an exaggeration to say that he is being used as a pawn by competing companies. He has been lying right from the beginning on the issue,” he said.
