Rafale row: Chidambaram cites 'new dates' in jet deal; asks 'What happened on those days?'

Lashing out at the Centre over the Rafale deal again, Congress MP P Chidambaram on Saturday, questioned the Defence Minister on the 'new dates' revealed in the jet deal. Asking what happened on the new dates, the ex-Finance Minister asked, "Why should ‘events’ and ‘facts’ tumble out of the cupboard one by one?". A French report by Mediapart stated that a judge has been appointed to conduct a judicial investigation into allegations of corruption and favouritism in the pact for 36 Rafale fighter planes of 7.8 billion euros between the Indian government and French aircraft manufacturer Dassault, followed by a complaint filed by the French NGO Sherpa.

Congress: 'What happened on these dates?"

BJP dismisses wrongdoing

Dismissing Congress' claims of corruption, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "Today they (Congress) lied about Rafale deal, again. If a country's (France) NGO (Sherpa) complains against a charge and its financial prosecution body orders a probe accordingly, it should not be seen as corruption. It is sad that Rahul Gandhi and Congress is politicising this again." He added, "As far as probe is concerned, the Supreme Court and CAG have made their report on the Rafale deal public. They had tried to spread this lie before 2019 polls, it did not work."

As per Mediapart.fr's report, France's anti-corruption agency Agence Française Anticorruption (AFA) found a suspicious payment of 1 million euros by Dassault Aviation to an Indian middleman Defsys Solutions for 50 models of Rafale aircraft which were to be given as “gifts" in 2016. The middleman is now accused of money laundering in India in the VVIP chopper scam. The report states that AFA had allegedly pulled up Dassault after no proof was provided for the manufacturing of these aircraft models yet, adding that AFA 'dropped' the matter citing that the “query was settled” after Rafale explained the process to it. Centre had dismissed these allegations terming it 'baseless' and may be due to "corporate rivalry" in France.

The Rafale deal controversy

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi had raised questions on the Rafale deal in Parliament on why only 26 aircraft were being acquired when 126 were needed. On the pricing of the Rafale jet, he had asked why it was changed from Rs 526 crore each to Rs 1600 crore each and questioned choosing Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence for the joint venture with  Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) over HAL.  These allegations were denied by then-Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, affirming that no government approvals were required for the joint venture between two private companies. Moreover, the Supreme Court dismissed all the petitions seeking a probe into the alleged irregularities in the deal and gave a clean chit to the Union government on the deal.