Rahul to address HAL employees on Rafale deal
Bengaluru, Oct 10: Seeking to step up his attack over the Rafale fighter jet deal, Congress President Rahul Gandhi is slated to meet on October 13 employees of the HAL, which the party has alleged was overlooked in the offsets contract with French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
Karnataka unit Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao said Gandhi will talk to the employees of the city-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited about the controversial deal and also address a rally here.
Shri Rahul Gandhi will meet employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru on October 13. He will be talking about the controversial "#RafaleDeal, and will also address a party workers rally in the city, Karnataka Pradesh Congress tweeted quoting Rao as saying.
The Congress, which has been accusing the government of benefiting the Reliance Defence Ltd of Anil Ambani from the deal, has also been demanding answers on why the state-run aerospace major HAL was not involved in the deal as finalised during the UPA.
The party had been accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of snatching jobs of people of Karnataka by taking away the contract from HAL.
Gandhi had been saying that had HAL been selected in place of Reliance Defence it could have generated employment to scores of unemployed youth in the state.
The BJP has dismissed all allegations as false.
Modi had announced the procurement of 36 Rafale fighters after holding talks with then French President Francois Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris.
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Waqf Bill anti-secular, will snatch rights of Muslims: Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday described the Waqf (Amendment) Bill as “anti-secular”, claiming that it would snatch the rights of Muslims.
Banerjee, speaking in the assembly, also said the Centre did not consult with states over the matter.
“The bill is anti-federal and anti-secular; it is a deliberate attempt to malign a particular section. It will snatch the rights of Muslims... The Centre did not consult with us on the Waqf Bill,” she said.
The chief minister added that “if any religion was attacked”, she would wholeheartedly condemn it.
Opposition parties have stridently criticised the amendments proposed by the bill in the existing Waqf Act, alleging that they violate the religious rights of Muslims.
The ruling BJP has asserted that the amendments will bring transparency in the functioning of the Waqf boards and make them accountable.
A parliamentary committee has been constituted to scrutinise the contentious bill.
