Will request PAC to call AG, CAG: Mallikarjun Kharge

New Delhi: As BJP is all set to make SC clean chit on Rafale deal one of its main poll planks for the 2019, the Congress continued to target the government over the issue.  Public Accounts Committee chairman Mr Mallikarjun Kharge said on Saturday that he will request all members of the panel to summon the attorney general and the CAG to ask them when was the public auditor’s report tabled in Parliament.

At a press conference, Congress leader Mr Kapil Sibal pointed to a part of Friday’s judgment in which the Supreme Court said the material placed before it shows the Centre did not disclose in Parliament the pricing details of the fighter jet but revealed it to the Comptroller and Auditor General. The apex court also said that the CAG report was even examined by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. Reacting to this, Mr Sibal said that Mr Kharge, the chairman of PAC, has said that he never received any such report on Rafale jet.

In relief to the Modi government, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the pleas challenging the deal between India and France for procurement of 36 Rafale jets, saying there was no occasion to “really doubt the decision making process” warranting setting aside of the contract.

Mr Sibal also lashed out at the government for not reading its own affidavits. He said, “This is a very serious matter and there should be an action in this case because the message among people is that CAG has cleared and Parliament has seen the deal, which is wrong.” He further added that the court has neither gone into pricing nor into the technical aspects of the deal. “Then how can they say that the Supreme Court has given clean chit to the government? If you (the government) have not given the evidence, nothing, if the cross-examination has not happened then who gave you a clean chit. Only a JPC, which will be formed sooner or later, can probe this,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Saturday filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking correction in a paragraph in its judgement on Rafale fighter jet deal in which a reference has been made about the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). A law officer said that the application has been filed to convey to the court that there has been some misinterpretation on the issue of the documents placed in a sealed cover relating to the CAG and PAC.

The issue of CAG and PAC was mentioned in para 25 of the judgement of the top court which had held that there were no irregularities in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France. The judgement had said that the material placed before it shows that the Centre did not disclose in Parliament the pricing details of the Rafale fighter jet, but revealed it to the Comptroller and Auditor General.