Nirmala says Rafale is no scam; Rahul vows probe ‘after ’19 win’

New Delhi: Accusations and counter-accusations flew thick and fast in the Lok Sabha on Friday as a belligerent and emotional defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave a “point-by-point” rebuttal to Opposition charges on the Rafale jet deal and equally combative Congress members, specially its president Rahul Gandhi, stuck to their guns and kept interjecting with more questions.

Accusing the Congress of spreading “falsehood” on the issue and attempting to tarnish the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the defence minister said while the “Bofors scam sank the Congress, Rafale would bring PM Modi back to power”.

Seeking to turn the tables on the Congress over the French fighter jet deal, Ms Sitharaman claimed that the party’s government never intended to purchase the fighter jets “till something else was done”. “You stopped the deal, forgetting the Air Force was suffering. The deal didn’t get you money,” she said.

Outside the House, Mr Gandhi said if his party comes to power in 2019, a criminal investigation will be launched into the Rafale deal and those found guilty will be punished.

It was a heated debate in the Lower House as both sides left no stone unturned to dominate. Senior leaders Jyotiradiya Scindia and Mallikarjun Kharge led the Congress side while railway minister Piyush Goyal and finance minister Arun Jaitley were seen egging on the defence minister.

The treasury benches also replied to Mr Gandhi by using his language of abbreviations. Taking a swipe at the Congress over its allegation that the government helped Anil Ambani — whom the Congress chief had referred as “AA” during the debate — by making his company the offset partner of the Rafale deal, the defence minister reminded the Opposition party of Bofors scam and said, “For every ‘AA’ (Anil Ambani) there is a ‘Q’ (Quattrocchi)’ and ‘RV’ (Robert Vadra).”

“Q” was a reference to Ottavio Quattrocci, an Italian businessman accused of acting as middleman in the Bofors scandal, and “RV” was meant to target Congress over the allegedly dubious land deals of Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi.

Ms Sitharaman said, “Abbreviations for a joke can be easy for anybody... it’s a double-edged sword, it can come back,” said the minister. She added that “RV” was not the “damad (son-in-law)” of the PM but that of the country.

While highlighting the need for national security, the defence minister hit out at the Congress saying, “There is a difference between defence deal and dealing in defence. We deal with national security as a priority.”

Towards the end of her over two hour reply in the House, there was high drama as the defence minister got emotional and accused the Congress of trying to tarnish the image of the Prime Minister and herself.

“Nobody has a right to call me or the Prime Minister a thief and a liar,” said a visibly angry Ms Sitharaman.    

Her emotional outburst came after Mr Gandhi while seeking clarifications on her reply said that he was not accusing her but the Prime Minister who had allegedly carried out a “bypass surgery” to finalise the deal. “I do not have any proof of your wrong-doing. You have done nothing other than defending a lie,” he said.

Evading a direct reply to this, Ms Sitharaman accused the Congress of trying to malign the image of the Prime Minister and leaders like her who come from “ordinary” families and have no “khandan (family name)” to show off.

As Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to let Mr Gandhi speak again after this, the Congress president addressed the media outside the House and said that the defence minister had not replied to his questions but had done “drama” and “run away” without giving a reply.

“Let me tell you that if we come to power in 2019, then there will be (an) investigation (into the Rafale deal). There will be a criminal investigation and the people responsible will be punished,” Mr Gandhi told reporters.

The defence minister had begun her speech by claiming that the Congress was making Rafale an issue as some middlemen were not able to make money.

Targeting the Congress president, who had himself led a scathing attack on the Prime Minister over Rafale while opening the debate for his party, Ms Sitharaman countered his claim that a French leader had told him that there is no secrecy clause in the deal. She asked Mr Gandhi to authenticate his claim on the floor of the House.

She accused the Congress of spreading “falsehoods” on the Rafale deal and said the party had compromised with national security by not finalising the deal when in power despite India’s volatile neighbourhood.

“The defence ministry has been functioning without ‘dalals’ (middlemen) during five years of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. Rafale is a decision in national interest. She said that it was the IAF suggested that the government buy two squadrons or 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition instead of 18, as was planned to be purchased under the Congress-led UPA government,” she said.

Ms Sitharaman said that under the deal finalised by the NDA government, the delivery of first Rafale aircraft will happen in 2019, while the last of 36 jets will arrive in 2022.

On pricing difference, Ms Sitharaman said there was no formal price noting by the Congress of `526 crore as the deal price. But the price negotiated by the NDA government is nine per cent lower than what was negotiated by the UPA.

“Comparing the cost of `526 crore with `1,600 crore, is like comparing apples to oranges. The cost quoted in 2007, will it remain the same in 2016, because there is escalation cost and there is exchange rate variation. The price of the basic aircraft cannot be compared with price of weaponised aircraft,” the minister said.

She also accused the Congress of shedding “crocodile tears” on HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) not getting the offset contract from Dassault Aviation, the maker of Rafale jets.

The minister said the Congress government did nothing to scale up the capacity of the state-run firm while the BJP-led NDA has given `1 lakh crore worth of contracts to HAL.

On the ADAG group getting the offset contract, she said the company obtained 53 waivers and concessions during the Congress-led UPA regime.