Rafale deal: Ambani gets favours; interest of nation ignored
Soon after former President of France Francois Hollande broke his silence over the Rafale deal, leaders of both India and France have been deeply embarrassed. Hollande’s statement has been such a blow to Indian government which had maintained that France decided all the terms and conditions of this deal. Modi government had recently said French company Dassault Aviation had chosen Anil Ambani’s company as their Indian partner and India had no role in this deal. In an interview, Hollande said Ambani’s company was suggested as partner by Indian government and they had no role in choosing an interlocutor. Even after this, the Indian government is attempting to say it is innocent in the matter, claiming there is no need to conduct any investigation in this regard.
The Rafale deal is now said to be the biggest defence scam ever, by the Indian government. This deal costs Rs one lakh crore, and Bofors scam diminishes in comparison to this. Opposition parties are pointing out that PM of a country favoured a particular industrialist, over the national interest at the cost of tax payers’ money. Modi government is giving out contradictory claims in this regard and is misleading the parliament on the whole. At one point, the government even tried to say this deal was finalized during the UPA regime.
Fact remains that UPA government had decided to buy 126 fighter Rafale jets from Dassault company to strengthen the combat power of air force. Congress government had taken enough care to ensure no corruption would take place in this deal since the party has been unable to wash off the Bofors stain from its face since many decades now. Hence it had set up armed forces committees from respective departments to ensure the deal was clean and efficient. It was mandatory to take the opinion and follow the recommendations made by these committees before finalizing the deal. The recommendations made by the committees had to undergo several levels of verification and acceptance by experts and members.
Rafale deal finalized by the UPA government had to pass through all these filters and then 126 jets were to be bought to strengthen six squadrons. UPA government was also striving to build capacities of Indian industries catering to defence sector as well. Long discussions were held in 2012 regarding Rafale deal to be finalized at appropriate prices of jets. Every jet would cost Rs 326 crore as per the deal made by the UPA government. According to that, 18 war planes were to be bought from France and the rest of 108 planes were to be assembled in Public Sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Ruling party changed in the meantime after the elections and Modi government continued the talks with France on Rafale deal. The CEO of Dassault came to India in 2015, and said the deal had reached final stages with all talks having reached a conclusive level. But a capitalist PM Modi changed all terms and conditions of this deal, by turning it upside down in a few days’ time to suit his preference.
As per the 'revised agreement', the union government was to buy only 36 jets instead of 126 as finalized by the UPA. And the price had also changed from Rs 670 crore per jet to Rs 1660 crore. Earlier deal had been about buying few units of jets and then the rest would be assembled at HAL so that the PSU could build capacity. But the Modi government did away with this clause and changed it to building all the 36 jets in France.
HAL was clearly set aside, as if mocking Make in India theme floated by the very government, in this deal. Instead of that, Anil Ambani’s new company Reliance Defence Limited was allowed to have a major chunk of this deal and be a partner in this. A joint agreement was signed with Anil Ambani company as well. At the same time, Reliance had entered into a mega film deal payment to be made to Hollande’s partner Julie Gayet.
Modi government defended the deal stating the jets to be supplied to India need special parts and hence the deal was hiked to above Rs 1000 crore per unit. But the committees with defence experts with them have not approved of this deal. Modi government has another version that the jets were needed in shorter time frame and hence the rates had to be changed. But this argument does not make a cut.
Though none of this is acceptable, even after all the changes, the first jet would come to India only in September 2019. ‘Na Khaunga Na Khaane dunga’ was PM Modi’s words. Now with Rafale deal showing his clear favouritism, has this fallen flat? The government has to set up a joint Parliamentary committee to investigate into the matter and conduct an impartial investigation to bring out the truth. With this, the government has to clear the doubts in people’s minds regarding the interest factor of this government.
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Speaker rules out discussion on Guv''s conduct amid K''taka Assembly standoff
Bengaluru (PTI): In an effort to end the logjam over the Governor's address that has stalled proceedings for the past week, Karnataka Assembly Speaker U T Khader on Wednesday ruled that legislators should not discuss Thaawarchand Gehlot or his conduct in the house, saying such debates send the wrong message to the public.
The House has witnessed repeated disruptions and adjournments since the session began on January 22 over the issue of the governor's conduct.
During his address to the joint sitting of the Karnataka legislature on January 22, Gehlot read out only three sentences from the 122-paragraph speech prepared by the state government.
The speech included criticism of the Centre for replacing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) with the Viksit Bharat–Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajivika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G), portions of which the governor declined to read.
Concluding his address in about two minutes, the governor left the house, triggering a commotion as Congress legislators attempted to gherao him and raised slogans.
While the opposition BJP accused the ruling Congress and its ministers of "insulting" the governor and demanded action, the treasury benches countered by claiming the governor had "insulted the National Anthem by leaving before it was played."
The house again witnessed heated arguments on the issue earlier in the day, leading to adjournment.
During the interruption, Khader held a meeting with ministers and opposition members to resolve the impasse.
When proceedings resumed, the speaker delivered his ruling.
Referring to the events of January 22 and the subsequent debate, Khader said the conduct and discussions had conveyed the wrong message to the public.
"Our conduct as members of this House and the opinions expressed must be in good taste and in accordance with constitutional provisions. They must uphold the dignity of the House and its members. We must introspect in this direction," he said.
He stressed the need for caution to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the future.
"Let us end this matter here, continue the discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor, and refrain from discussing the governor or his conduct in this house," the speaker said.
Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka said the house should express regret over what he termed an "insult" to the governor.
Responding, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the situation would not have arisen had the governor read out the entire address.
"Asking the house to express regret is not appropriate. Why did the governor leave even before the National Anthem was played," Siddaramaiah asked.
BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar reminded Siddaramaiah that as Leader of the Opposition in 2011, he had asked then Governor Hansraj Bhardwaj to curtail his address.
Bhardwaj had subsequently placed the address on the table of the house, requesting members to treat it as read.
Siddaramaiah said the situation in January 2011 was different from the present one.
The debate grew intense, leading to another adjournment of the house.
