Rahul Gandhi slams government over reports of Ukraine kickbacks

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the central government over reports of alleged kickbacks in procuring the spares of AN-32 from Ukraine.

Mr. Gandhi who is abroad with his mother Mrs. Sonia Gandhi for her checkup tweeted, “Ministry of Defence, India (MODI) officials, accused of making millions of dollars in kickbacks via Dubai by Ukrainian government in AN32 deal. Modiji, as our self proclaimed chowkidar, I urge you to take immediate action against your corrupt MODI officials.”

Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Mr. Manish Tewari, citing a media report on the alleged kickbacks, also demanded that the government should come out with details of the contract and not sweep it under the carpet “as was the case” in the Rafale deal. “If this government believes in transparency and probity and if it abides by the slogan of ‘na khata hun, na khane deta hun’ (we don’t take bribes nor let others to do so), then why have you been hiding these facts from the people.

The moment the request came from the Ukrainian government it should have been put out in the public space,” he said.

Meanwhile, rubbishing the report in a leading daily, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), issued a rejoinder on Thursday saying that neither the MoD nor the IAF (Indian Air Force) had interacted or signed any agreement with Global Marketing SP Ltd, nor were any such agreements witnessed.

“IAF has also confirmed that Global Marketing SP Ltd has not participated in any of the meetings held towards finalisation of the contract dated 26.11.2014 with STE Ukraine”.

The MoD release also said that there were no allegations against any Indian government official and that the Ukrainian government had only requested the Indian government to render legal assistance in a March 6 letter relating to the investigation of a criminal case where Ukrainian government officials were involved.