France begins judicial probe into Rafale deal with India: French media
New Delhi, Jul 3: A French judge has been appointed to lead a "highly sensitive" judicial investigation into alleged "corruption and favouritism" in the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal with India, French investigative website Mediapart reported.
Following the development, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come forward and order a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal.
"Corruption in the Rafale deal has come out clearly now. The stand of the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi has been vindicated today after the French government has ordered a probe," he told reporters at a press conference.
However, there was no immediate reaction from the Indian government or the BJP.
The Mediapart said the probe into the inter-governmental deal signed in 2016 was formally opened on June 14.
"A judicial probe into suspected corruption has been opened in France over the 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter aircraft," the Mediapart reported on the latest development on the controversial deal.
It said the investigation has been initiated by the national financial prosecutors' office (PNF).
The judicial investigation has been ordered by France's national financial prosecutors' office, following Mediapart's fresh reports in April of alleged wrongdoings in the deal as well as a complaint filed by French NGO Sherpa that specialises in financial crime.
"The highly sensitive probe into the inter-governmental deal signed off in 2016 was formally opened on June 14th," the media report said.
Mediapart journalist Yann Philippin, who filed a series of reports on the deal, said a first complaint was "buried" in 2019 by a former PNF chief.
"The judicial investigation was finally opened following the revelations of the investigation #RafalePapers of @mediapart and a new complaint from @Asso_Sherpa. A 1st complaint was buried in 2019 by the former PNF boss, Eliane Houlette," he tweeted.
In April, Mediapart, citing an investigation by the country's anti-corruption agency, reported that Dassault Aviation had paid about one million Euros to an Indian middleman.
Dassault Aviation has rejected the allegations of corruption, saying no violations were reported in the frame of the contract.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had inked a Rs 59,000-crore deal on September 23, 2016, to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation after a nearly seven-year exercise to procure 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force did not fructify during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime.
The Congress accused the government of massive irregularities in the deal, alleging that it was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government during the negotiations for the MMRCA.
Prior to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, the Congress raised several questions about the deal and alleged corruption but the government rejected all the charges.
जो सबसे ताजा खुलासे अब फ्रांस में हुए है उनके बाद एक बार फिर अब कोई शक-सुभा-संशय की गुजांइश नहीं रही है
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) July 3, 2021
प्रथम दृष्टि से #Rafale एयरक्राफ्ट सौदे में भ्रष्टाचार साबित है, सामने है जो कांग्रेस पार्टी और श्री राहुल गांधी कहते रहे हैं, वो प्रथम दृष्टि से आज साबित हो गया!#RafaleScam pic.twitter.com/yNMT3wexuT
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I like both sides of argument on H-1B; want competent people coming into US: Donald Trump
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump said he likes both sides of the argument on H-1B foreign guest workers' visa, noting that he likes "very competent people" coming into the country and that he has used the programme.
"I like both sides of the argument, but I also like very competent people coming into our country, even if that involves them training and helping other people that may not have the qualifications they do. But I don't want to stop -- and I'm not just talking about engineers, I'm talking about people at all levels," Trump told reporters at the White House during a joint news conference with Oracle CTO Larry Ellison, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman.
The president was responding to a question on the ongoing debate on H-1B visa within his support base.
While his close confidants like Elon Musk, the Tesla owner, supports H-1B visa as it brings in qualified tech professionals, many of his supporters oppose it arguing that it takes away jobs from Americans.
"We want competent people coming into our country. And H-1B, I know the programme very well. I use the programme. Maître d', wine experts, even waiters, high-quality waiters -- you've got to get the best people. People like Larry, he needs engineers, Masa also needs... they need engineers like nobody's ever needed them," Trump said.
"So, we have to have quality people coming in. Now by doing that, we're expanding businesses and that takes care of everybody. So I'm sort of on both sides of the argument, but what I really do feel is that we have to let really competent people, great people, come into our country. And we do that through the H-1B programme," Trump added.
