Rahul leads barrage on Modi, Govt; Parliament rocked

The Hindu expose on Friday on the Rafale deal provided fresh ammunition to the Opposition, with Congress President Rahul Gandhi raising the issue at a press conference in Delhi and other parties forcing adjournments in both Houses of Parliament.

On its part, the BJP dubbed the fresh revelations as nothing but “flogging of a dead horse”.

At an impromptu press conference, Rahul cited The Hindu report and said: “Today, it is clear that PM (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) himself had been carrying out a parallel negotiation.”

Soon afterwards, the issue resonated in both Houses of Parliament with the Opposition demanding that the Centre immediately constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the scam. Waving copies of The Hindu , Opposition MPs chanted “ chowkidar chor hai ” in both the Houses and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “destroying the defence of the country”.

Sitharaman’s defence

Amid the uproar in the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the report should have also carried the reply of then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. “If the newspaper wanted to bring the truth out, I would have thought that it was incumbent upon that newspaper to put the reply of the then Raksha Mantri also on record,” she said. “The then Raksha Mantri, Parrikar, had very clearly said... in response to the file noting of the then Defence Secretary... ‘remain calm, there is nothing to worry, things are going all right’,” she added.

The Defence Minister’s response is, in fact, a further corroboration of the lead story in The Hindu which was based on Defence Ministry’s objections, raised in November 2015, on “parallel negotiations” conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the French side on the controversial Rafale jet fighter deal.

Quoting a Ministry of Defence (MoD) note, the report highlighted that such “parallel negotiations” by the PMO had “weakened the negotiating position of the MoD and the Indian Negotiating Team”.

The document, dated November 24, 2015, contained then Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar’s file noting that “RM (Raksha Mantri) may pl. see. It is desirable that such discussions be avoided by the PMO as it undermines our negotiating position seriously.” The report highlighted that the PMO had “weakened the negotiating position of the MoD and the Indian Negotiating Team”.

The note further said: “We may advise the PMO that any officers who are not part of the Indian Negotiating Team may refrain from having parallel parleys with the officers of the French government”. It suggested that “in case the PMO is not confident about the outcome of the negotiations being carried out by the MoD, a revised modality of negotiations to be led by PMO at appropriate level may be adopted in the case.”

‘Concerns cast aside’

While the Defence Minister said her predecessor had told MoD officials to “remain calm”, Gandhi maintained that the newspaper report “makes it crystal clear that the concerns of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence were cast aside”.

“Today, in The Hindu newspaper, It is absolutely black and white that the Prime Minister himself was carrying out parallel negotiations with the French,” said Rahul Gandhi, adding that it is now “clear that the Prime Minister has stolen ₹30,000 crore of people’s money, by-passed the process and given it to his friend Anil Ambani”.

“So, it is an open and shut case that the Defence Ministry itself is saying that the PM is conducting parallel negotiations,” Gandhi added. Other parties joined in, with CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury asserting that the Prime Minister has “consistently undermined the Air Force and Defence Ministry in the Rafale deal for corruption, to benefit his cronies”.

“His actions have hurt the public exchequer and damaged national security. These facts have been hidden from the Supreme Court where a review petition is pending,” Yechury said. He said through Sitharaman’s statement in the Lok Sabha, the government has accepted that the wires in the scam go “straight to the top man”.

“The PM must take responsibility for the loss to the exchequer and violation of procedure to get far fewer fighter jets than what the Air Force wanted. All just to help cronies,” he added. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal demanded that the CBI raid the PMO, seize all the files related to Rafale and make arrests.

DMK President MK Stalin said Modi’s actions in the deal were akin to contempt of court. “Modi is guilty of contempt. In its sealed envelope to the SC, the Centre never mentioned PMO’s negotiations,” he alleged.