Rafale scandal: Who is Modi loyal to?
Modi and his men seem to think that it is a huge success and a ‘clean chit’ given to them that an investigation of an alleged scam has been evaded at the outset. Supreme Court has dismissed the petition to probe into Rafale scam under the supervision of court.
Which means, the court has said it would not interfere with the matter and has hence specified its limitations in its jurisdiction. The court’s statement does not come after any investigation carried out by the Supreme Court. And the Team Modi is using it to pull wool over people’s eyes as it always does.
They are using this statement by the Court to defend themselves. They have been telling people that the court has absolved them of all corruption charges and that the court called it a clean deal, or something to that effect.
Many leaders including those from within the BJP and opposition parties have said Rafale Scam is many times bigger than the Bofors scandal. Through this scam, the government tried to axe the chances of HAL which has been bolstering and providing for the nation’s defence needs, and attempted to promote a non-entity in this sector such as Reliance.
This deal was clearly to offer advantage to Ambani family and his business, even at the cost of compromising on national security. These are the charges Modi is facing right now. His statement of palming off the blame of introducing Ambani into the deal was by Dassault Aviation has fallen flat with former President of France Hollande who said India specified the defence partner and they just went with the choice.
Even after all this, Narendra Modi government did not allow an investigation to take place. Bofors is nothing when compared to this Rafale deal which amounts to Rs one lakh crore.
Opposition parties are levelling serious charges that Modi has thrown all caution, policies and legal frameworks to wind to accommodate the interest of his corporate friends and beneficiaries. The Modi government has been issuing conflicting statements about this issue and misguiding the Parliament.
At some point, this government had said the deal was finalized by the UPA government when it was in power. The last UPA government had planned to buy 126 jets to bolster the Airforce from French company Dassault. Congress government which had faced a lot of embarrassment in case of Bofors, had taken enough care to ensure such mistakes do not repeat themselves over here.
Hence it had formed committees of experts to ratify the deals and specific issues. The committees had to submit their recommendations before the deal was finalized. Hence, the scrutiny was close at every stage.
This is how UPA planned to take the Rafale decision before buying 126 fighter jets. But everything turned topsy turvy with Modi government. The agreement that was reached during UPA was to buy jets at a cost of Rs 670 cr per unit, after long discussions that were held in 2012.
According to that, 18 jets would be bought from France and the rest of 108 jets would be assembled at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. And in the meantime when the governments changed, the CEO of Dassault Company came down to India to hold discussions in 2015. He declared the talks were finalized and the agreement was closed to start the work.
But in order to offer profits to a corporate capitalist, PM Modi ignored the defence ministry and finalized the deal with his own specific terms and conditions. HAL was kept out and Reliance, a novice in defence sector, was the new shining partner in this deal.
Modi is credited with meddling with CBI since the office began to show interest in investigating the Rafale deal. The tiff between Alok Verma and Asthana was just a pretext this government needed. Asthana was the central government’s mole in CBI who informed the centre that Verma was interested in probing this deal. Latter was sent on compulsory leave. The centre has been successful in ensuring even the SC sings its tunes. But the SC statement is filled with contradictions.
The verdict says “The price fixing details of jets have been discussed with CAG and the PAC has scrutinized it. Only part of this scrutiny has been published in Parliament and public websites”. But the PAC has already said CAG report has not reached it yet.
Hence, the question arises about whether the SC was misguided and misinformed on the whole thing? Whatever that be, if Modi is honest in his intentions, why should be fear an investigation? Can he not come out unblemished and innocent from all this? It is his duty to regain the trust and faith of the nation. If the SC cannot probe this, this should be handed over to JPC. Since this is the question of country’s safety and security, Modi has to prove whether he is loyal to Reliance or to the country.
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London, Nov 22: A bomb disposal squad deployed as a “precaution” to the South Terminal of Gatwick Airport concluded an investigation into a "security incident" on Friday after making a “suspect package” safe.
The South Terminal of Gatwick Airport, the UK's second busiest airport after Heathrow, which was briefly shut owing to the incident reopened following the incident.
The Gatwick is around 45 km south of London.
Two people detained during the enquiries have since been allowed to continue their journey as the airport was opened.
“Police have concluded their investigation into a report of a suspect package at Gatwick Airport. Officers from the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team made the package safe, and the airport has been handed back to its operator,” Sussex Police said in an updated statement.
“Two people detained while enquiries were ongoing have subsequently been allowed to continue their journeys. There will remain an increased police presence in the area to assist with passengers accessing the South Terminal for onward travel,” the statement added.
Earlier on Friday, the incident caused severe disruption at the busy airport’s South Terminal, while the North Terminal of Gatwick Airport remained unaffected.
“Police were called to the South Terminal at Gatwick Airport at 8.20 am on Friday (November 22) following the discovery of a suspected prohibited item in luggage,” a Sussex Police statement said.
“To ensure the safety of the public, staff and other airport users, a security cordon has been put in place whilst the matter is dealt with. As a precaution, an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team is being deployed to the airport. This is causing significant disruption and some roads around the South Terminal have been closed. We’d advise the public to avoid the area where possible,” it said.
Footage on social media taken outside the airport showed crowds of frustrated travellers being moved away from the terminal building.
Gatwick said it was working hard to resolve the issue.
“A large part of the South Terminal has been evacuated as a precaution while we continue to investigate a security incident," the airport said in a social media post.
“Passengers will not be able to enter the South Terminal while this is ongoing. The safety and security of our passengers and staff remain our top priority. We are working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
Train and bus services that serve the airport were also impacted while the police carried out their inquiries.
In an unrelated incident in south London on Friday morning, the US Embassy area in Nine Elms by the River Thames was the scene of a controlled explosion by Scotland Yard dealing with what they believe may have been a “hoax device”.
“We can confirm the 'loud bang' reported in the area a short time ago was a controlled explosion carried out by officers,” the Metropolitan Police said in a post on X.
“Initial indications are that the item was a hoax device. An investigation will now follow. Some cordons will remain in place for the time being but the majority of the police response will now be stood down,” it added.
