Is defence ministry stolen?
Referring to the developments on the India-Pakistan border after Pulwama attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had remembered Rafale jets. In full glare of public, he said if he had Rafale jets, he could have answered Pakistan in its own language. He also claimed the opposition parties are conspiring against Rafale.
The whole process of Rafale agreement started during the UPA time. That government was very committed to getting Rafale for our armed forces. In some way, Modi is responsible for the delay in procuring Rafale because he wanted to remove HAL from the partner agreement and add his friend Ambani’s company Reliance. This was illegal. Today, this whole point has stopped Rafale from being handed over. Modi says there is nothing illegal in this, and ensured that SC had emphasized that this need not be probed. But the same Supreme Court has taken this up for hearing now.
If there is nothing illegal in this deal, why is the PM against a probe or investigation into this? It is his need as well to retain the trustworthiness in the matter that pertains to defence sector. Senior leader L K Advani had resigned from his post to facilitate inquiry when Hawala issue had surfaced. It is Modi’s prerogative as well that he orders an inquiry and proves his innocence through that in Rafale issue. But forget ordering an inquiry, he is deeply interested in destabilizing the CBI, by meddling with it. Now another major aspect has come to light regarding Rafale. The government has said to the Supreme Court that the Rafale agreement documents have been stolen from the defence ministry.
This statement is so steeped in irresponsibility that it is a terrible indication of how the government poorly perceives national security issues. On one hand, the government is arguing that The Hindu paper published the top secret and confidential documents compromising national security and hence the court has to act against this. But at the same time, can we hope that the defence ministry that is unable to safeguard documents can ever be able to protect the country?
Narendra Modi had said recently that the country is in ‘safe hands’. If this is true, how did such important documents go missing? How can the government that is favouring thieves within the defence ministry, even protect the country? And who is being benefited from such important documents going missing? If one understands who stands to be benefited from lost documents, we’d know who stole them.
The Hindu paper published series of reports based on the important documents. This proved the illegality in Rafale deal beyond doubt. Hence these are against the PM and his most favoured friend Ambani. What would the government’s response be, when it kept crying hoarse that the deal is clean and has no illegalities? Modi government has to answer these questions raised by the documents. Unfortunately, the government is playing petty by pointing fingers at The Hindu paper claiming this matter is for the opponents to argue since they procured the documents amounting to violation of confidentiality agreement.
If The Hindu hadn’t published these documents, the government would have kept the aspect of documents being stolen a secret from the Supreme Court. Since these documents are speaking against the PM, the benefit of doubt of their missing would help him. Hence it is natural to suspect who would have helped them go missing.
The fact that documents have gone missing from the defence sector has dealt a big blow to the defence ministry. Defence minister should have resigned from her post when hundreds of soldiers were killed during Pulwama attack as a matter of intelligence failure. No one owned the moral responsibility. After this, the capturing of our airforce pilot by Pakistan and his subsequent release left a huge dent on the internal security of the country. Now the government seems to have admitted somewhat surreptitiously that there have been illegalities in the Rafale deal by stating the documents are stolen. PM Modi has to take the moral responsibility and resign because he had taken the lead in this. He is directly being part of this deal which stole our defence ministry, nothing less.
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Austrian police detain suspect in case of rat poison found in baby food jars on supermarket shelves
Vienna (AP): Police in eastern Austria say a 39-year-old suspect has been arrested after rat poison turned up in some HiPP baby food jars on supermarket shelves in central Europe.
HiPP, which recalled some of its baby food jars in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic after the case came to light last month, said in a statement Saturday it was “greatly relieved” by the arrest, and would provide further updates as verified details come in.
The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office, under the direction of prosecutors, said a probe was launched after poison turned up in a baby food jar purchased at a supermarket in the city of Eisenstadt on April 18.
It said the suspect was being questioned, and that no further details would be immediately provided. The Burgenland public prosecutor's office has announced an investigation into suspected “intentional endangerment of the public.”
The Austrian Press Agency reported that an expert report on the toxicity of the poison was pending. A total of five tampered baby food jars were seized before they could be consumed, APA reported.
Authorities said previously they believe the tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets in Austria.
HiPP responded by recalling all of its baby food jars sold at SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution. Vendors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic also removed all of the brand's baby jars from sale.
The company said the recall was not due to any product or quality defect on its part, and said the jars left its facility in “perfect condition.”
Police said a customer at the time of the discovery had reported that a jar appeared to have been tampered with, but no one had consumed the baby food.
