Chandigarh
30 August 2018
DIVYA AZAD
Chandigarh Youth Congress organized a protest march at sector 20 chandigarh against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government over the alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have lied to the country by keeping it in the dark over the Rafale deal. The agreement has no clause requiring the government to keep the price of the deal hidden, but only the technicalities of the fighter jets. The government is trying to hide a scam worth ₹41,000 crore,” said Barinder Thakur president of the Chandigarh Youth Congress Committee.
Vice President Love Kumar said the agreement signed during the United Progressive Alliance regime in December 2012 stated that the cost of one Rafale jet is ₹526 crore and the total cost of 36 jets works out to ₹18,940 crore. The cost of one jet under the Modi government, though, is ₹1670.70 crore, which is almost 300% higher than the earlier deal. “The current deal does not share the technology with India, whereas the deal made by the Congress emphasised that,” he said.
Chandigarh Youth Congress Spoke Person Abhishek Sharma said, “What forced the BJP government to allot this contract to Reliance Defence, a newly-formed company with no experience whatsoever in making defence planes, over a firm like Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which has been in this industry for years? According to the law, the Standing Committee on Defence and the Comptroller and Auditor General should be informed about any such deal being signed by the government. The fact that Mr. Modi and the Defence Minister have decided to keep the price under wraps reeks of corruption. Local youth leader Dheeraj Kumar, Damanpreet, Navdeep Singh, Sunil yadav, Ashish Gajnavi, Vinayak Bangia, Jaanu Malik, Nikhil, Gourav Vashist, Prince were present .
