Congress President Rahul Gandhi stepped up his attack against the government over the multi-crore Rafale deal on Friday, stating that it was a deal done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give Anil Ambani Rs 30,000 crore.
He further said that PM Modi will not survive if a probe was conducted into the Rafale deal.
“If an inquiry starts on this Mr Modi is not going to survive it. Guaranteed. One, because of corruption. Two, because it’s very clear who the decision maker was…It was Narendra Modi and it was a deal done by Narendra Modi to give Anil Ambani Rs 30,000 crore,” he said.
Addressing the media in Delhi, Gandhi alleged that Dassault Aviation paid Rs 284 crore to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as the “first instalment of kickbacks”.
Accusing the Dassault CEO Éric Trappier of “lying” on the case, Gandhi said, “Dassault invested Rs 284 crore in the company of Anil Ambani. Anil Ambani bought land with the same money. This is clear that Dassault CEO is lying. Why did they invest Rs 284 crore in a loss-making company?”.
Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier has said the reason Ambani’s firm was given the offset contract and not state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was that it had land for the project, he said, alleging the land was purchased by Ambani’s company with the money that Dassault gave.
Rafale is an open-and-shut case. It is simply a PM Modi-Anil Ambani partnership, he added.
Rahul Gandhi also alleged that CBI chief Alok Verma was removed as he wanted to investigate the deal.
There was no immediate reaction from the government and Ambani on the fresh charges made by Gandhi. However, they have previously rejected all allegations made over the Rafale deal. Gandhi gave no evidence or document to substantiate his allegations.
The Congress has been accusing massive irregularities in the deal, alleging that the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating procurement of 126 Rafale jets.
PM Modi announced the purchase of 36 Rafale fighters after talks with Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris.
(With PTI inputs)