Congress stopped Rafale deal as it 'didn't get the money': Nirmala Sitharaman
New Delhi, Jan 4 : Hitting back at the Congress on the Rafale fighter jet deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday alleged that the party had stopped the deal when it was in power as it "didn't get the money" and ignored national security.
Replying to a debate on the Rafale issue in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman alleged that the Congress is only shedding crocodile tears on the HAL not getting the offset contract as it did nothing to scale up the capacity of the state-run firm.
The BJP-led NDA government gave Rs one lakh crore worth of contracts to HAL, she said.
Taking on the Congress, the minister said, "You stopped the deal, forgetting Air Force was suffering. You didn't conclude the deal, because it didn't suit you. The deal didn't get you money."
"They did not intend to buy the aircraft till something else was done. There is something different between defence deal and deal in defence," she said, asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government gave priority to national security.
"You are misleading the country by saying the NDA government reduced 126 Rafale jets to 36. Congress was supposed to buy 18 in fly-away condition, the NDA raised that to 36," she said.
The delivery of first Rafale will happen in 2019, while the last aircraft of 36 jets will be delivered in 2022, the minister said.
She said the IAF always advises government to buy two squadrons, which is 36 aircraft instead of 18, in case of emergency purchases, the Minister said.
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Hit by car, delivery agent dies after falling from flyover in Delhi
New Delhi (PTI): A food delivery agent died after falling from the Dabri flyover in southwest Delhi when his scooter was allegedly hit by a car on Thursday morning, police said.
The car driver fled from the spot, police said.
A PCR call was received at 7:35 am informing that a person had fallen from the Dabri flyover on Pankha road and required immediate medical assistance, they said.
A police team rushed to the spot and found a damaged scooter and a car on the flyover. The scooter rider sustained serious injuries and was immediately shifted to a nearby hospital in an ambulance, where doctors declared him dead, they added.
According to police, the victim was identified as Rajkumar, a resident of Jharkhand's Godda district. He was working as a delivery executive with a private food delivery service in Delhi.
The car involved in the accident bears a Delhi registration number and is registered in the name of a Dabri resident, police said.
"The body has been preserved in a mortuary and efforts are underway to apprehend the absconding driver," a senior police officer said.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and an investigation is underway to ascertain the exact sequence of events leading to the accident, police said.
