Congress-BJP dogfight over Rafale intensifies
New Delhi, Sep 23 : The political dogfight over the Rafale deal peaked on Sunday with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking to discredit former France President Francois Hollande's revelation about choice of the offset partner and even found a link to his claim to Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
Hitting back, the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of violating the oath of secrecy by revealing details of the pact to his industrialist crony and reiterated its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the intergovernmental deal with France to purchase 36 Rafale jets.
A day after Gandhi and the Congress came out all guns blazing against Modi, Jaitley cited conflicting media reports on Hollande's claims and questioned the veracity of the former French President's remarks that the Modi government had asked them to chose a private firm as the offset partner in the Rafale deal.
"Truth cannot have two versions," wrote Jaitley in his blogpost citing Hollande's initial claim to a French website that "Reliance Defence partnership with Dassault Aviation was entered at the suggestion of the Indian Government" and his subsequent statement to news agency AFP that "he is not aware if government ever lobbied for Reliance Defence".
"The accuracy of the statements made by the individuals may be questioned but circumstances never lie," said Jaitley, adding that "there is no 'partnership', as suggested by the former President.
"His (Hollande) second statement in Montreal, Canada, to AFP makes the veracity of his first statement even more questionable," said Jaitley maintaining that it was "erroneous for anybody to suggest that there is a partnership in the supply of the 36 Rafale aircraft".
Jaitley also pointed to a link between Hollande's claim and a tweet by Gandhi on April 30 saying "It's (Rafale) also going to drop some big bunker buster bombs in the next couple of weeks."
"The former French President's first statement rhymes with Rahul Gandhi's prediction," wrote Jaitley asserting Gandhi's tweet was "no coincidence".
The Congress which has been gunning for the Modi regime, lost no time in dismissing Jaitley's assertions as "lies" and demanded the Prime Minister to answer its questions rather than hiding behind his ministers' defences.
Gandhi in his reply said Jaitley's specialty was to "spin lies" and "defend the indefensible".
"It's high time he, the RM (Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman) and our Prime Minister stop lying and call a JPC to establish the full, uncorrupted truth about the Rafale scam," he said.
Intensifying the attack senior Congress leader Anand Sharma charged Modi with revealing the details of the intergovernmental deal to industrialist who subsequently became an offset partner instead of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
"The question to the Prime Minister is: how did this information come out that he would go go to France and reverse the deal?" said Sharma referring to Modi's April 2015 announcement of the deal to purchase 36 jets instead of 126 being negotiated during the erstwhile UPA regime.
"Then Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar had said that the Rafale deal was not on the agenda during Modi's visit to France. Even the Cabinet Committee on Security, the Indian Air Force, the Cabinet or the Foreign Secretary were not aware.
"Modi violated his oath of secrecy. Only he and none else could have revealed to the private company that he would reverse the deal," said Sharma while pointing to the incorporation of Reliance Defence Limited just days before Modi visited France in April 2015.
"It's a conspiracy, only one (Modi) person with knowledge about the new deal -- without telling anyone in the Cabinet, or the Ambassador etc -- revealed the details to the industrialist and asked him to form a company," added Sharma.
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Don't give special treatment, biryani to Rana: Tea seller who helped 26/11 victims
Mumbai (PTI): A tea seller who helped many people escape the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks has said accused Tahawwur Rana should not be given any special treatment, like biryani or a separate cell, and demanded that he be hanged to death.
Talking to PTI, Mohammed Taufiq, also known as 'Chotu Chai Wala', also demanded stricter laws in the country to deal with terrorists.
Taufiq was operating his tea stall at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in south Mumbai when it came under attack from terrorists in November 2008. He recounted seeing people dying in front of his eyes during the assault.
He had then alerted a large number of people, guided them towards a safe direction at the station to escape from the attack and rushed many of the injured persons to hospital.
"There is no need to provide a separate cell, or biryani and other facilities to Tahawwur Rana, like those given to Ajmal Kasab (the lone terrorist from the Pakistani group captured alive)," Taufiq said.
Notably, Kasab's demand for mutton biryani in jail was just a myth and was "concocted" to stop an "emotional wave" which was being created in favour of the militant, Ujjwal Nikam, public prosecutor in the case, said in 2015.
"Kasab never demanded biryani and was never served by the government. I concocted it just to break an emotional atmosphere which was taking shape in favour of Kasab during the trial of the case," Nikam had said.
Tahawwur Rana, 64, is being brought to India after his last-ditch attempt to evade extradition failed as the US Supreme Court justices rejected his application. He is expected to reach New Delhi on Thursday.
He is likely to be lodged in a high-security ward in Tihar jail in New Delhi when he reaches India.
Taufiq expressed gratitude to the US government and President Donald Trump for extraditing Rana to India.
"There should be a strict law in India also for terrorists. Rana being brought to India is a good news for us, but he should be hanged publicly within 15 days or in two-three months," the tea seller said.
"There is no need to give any special treatment to such people and spend crores of rupees on them like we did on Kasab. I will celebrate once Rana is given death penalty. He should be hanged to death before anyone tries to save him," Taufiq said.
The government has provided help to the victims but money cannot bring back anyone's life, he added.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack on the CSMT, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea.
As many as 166 persons were killed in the nearly 60-hour terror assault.
Rana is a Pakistan-born Canadian national and close associate of one of the main conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen.
Kasab was hanged to death in Pune's Yerawada Jail in 2012.
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