New deal not cheaper, govt lied in Parliament: Rahul Gandhi on Rafale report
New Delhi, Feb 13 (IBNS): Congress president Rahul Gandhi today said the Narendra Modi government had lied in Parliament when they said this new deal was cheaper than the previous one.
"The entire argument of Modiji, Jaitleyji and Nirmala Sitharamanji was that the AIr Force needs the aircraft without delay and the new deal was made because they wanted to hand over the planes to the Air Force at the earliest," Rahul said at a news conference after the tabling of the CAG report on the Rafale deal in Parliament.
Citing a note of the technical experts who were negotiating the new deal, Rahul said: "In this deal, India will get the aircraft later than the previous deal. The last aircraft will come in 10 years."
The Congress president also claimed the new price was 55 per cent higher than the previous deal.
The CAG report is a cover-up. It ignores the cost of the missing Bank Guarantee & glosses over the suspect costs for "India Specific Enhancements".
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 13, 2019
But even the CAG couldn't hide that it may take upto 10 yrs. for the 36 RAFALE jets to be delivered!
Watch &.Share this video. pic.twitter.com/yegK4wg9CS
"There is only one point of this deal. Narendra Modi wanted to give Anil Ambani (Rs) 30000 crore," he said.
"Why is this document not in this report (CAG)? The negotiators did not agree with the new deal," he questioned and added that the government has lied in Parliament when they said the price was cheaper than the earlier deal.
Amid standoff between the ruling BJP and Congress over the controversial Rafale deal (buying of 36 fighter jets from France), the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on Wednesday said the deal signed by the Narendra Modi government was 2.86 per cent cheaper than the one made by the UPA government.
The CAG report, which did not contain the pricing details, was submitted to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the last day of the Parliament session ahead of the forthcoming General Elections.
The report came to light on the day The Hindu published a news stating three defence ministry officials, who were the domain experts on the seven-member Indian Negotiating Team (INT), concluded that the Rafale deal made by the Modi government was not on "better terms" than the one made by the UPA government.
The three defence ministry officials also concluded that the delivery schedule of the first 18 of 36 jets in the new deal was slower than the original procurement process.
The Hindu report contradicts the BJP government's claims of a cheaper deal and faster delivery of aircraft under its regime.
Under the Congress-led UPA government, which ruled the country from 2004 to 2014, India had signed a deal to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets.
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