‘Modi govt covering corruption in Rafale deal’

ISLAMABAD: The major opposition party in India, Indian National Congress on Tuesday accused the Modi government of conducting an operation to "cover-up" corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal and asked why it did not initiate an investigation into the role of a middleman despite recovering incriminating documents from him.

Ever-since India has purchased Rafale aircraft from France, the deal has become a symbol of government corruption in India. The Congress spokesperson, Pawan Khera, told a press conference that the BJP government has sacrificed national security, jeopardised the interests of the Indian Air Force and caused loss worth thousands of crores of rupees to the state exchequer.

The French investigative journal Mediapart in a fresh expose has revealed how middleman Sushen Gupta got hold of confidential documents belonging to the Indian Negotiating Team in 2015 from the Ministry of Defence, he said. The documents detailed the stance of Indian negotiators during the final lap of negotiations and in particular how they calculated the price of the aircraft. This gave clear advantage to Dassault Aviation (Rafale), Khera claimed, citing the Mediapart report.

“The ‘operation cover-up’ by the Modi government to bury the melting pot of corruption, kickbacks and collusion in Rafale deal is once again exposed,” he said. “The BJP government undermined national security, jeopardised the interests of the Indian Air Force,” Khera said at a press conference. Each revelation in the “murky affair in the last five years, every single allegation and each piece of the puzzle leads right up to the topmost leadership of the country: the prime minister’s doorstep”, he said. Khera alleged that the latest revelations in “operation cover-up” reveal the “dubious nexus” between the Modi government-CBI-ED to bury corruption in the Rafale deal.