Congress urges CAG for forensic audit of Rafale deal
On Thursday, October 4, Congress party leaders met with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Rajiv Mehrishi to present him a memorandum to request carry out the forensic audit of Rs 60,150 crore Rafale deal.
Congress party leaders met CAG for the second time in less than a month. Before this they met CAG on September 19.
In the memorandum Congress alleged that the Rafale deal is the biggest scam in defence procurement and asked CAG for immediate intervention in Rafale deal citing the corruption in the Rafale deal is nauseating.
The Congress memorandum said, “The Rafale Scam has now emerged as India’s Biggest ‘Defence Scam’. Skeletons are tumbling out of the closet everyday with repeated disclosures getting zero answers from the Defence Ministry. Infect, the only ‘Truth’ of this Government is ‘Subterfuge’.”
It said, “The stench of ‘Corruption’ and ‘Cronyism’ in the Rafale Deal is nauseating, requiring urgent intervention”.
Congress again approaches CAG over Rafale deal | https://t.co/a9LyzxBvVQ pic.twitter.com/Xftwtiq2ZX
— EconomicTimes (@EconomicTimes) October 4, 2018
In memorandum Congress party alleged that the Reliance defence was intentionally awarded the Rs. 30,000 crore offset project contract that was snatched from public owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The memorandum said, “The above facts reflect a clear-cut case of loss to public exchequer and rampant corruption coupled with a concerted conspiracy of by-passing PSU, HAL”.
It added, “It also reveals illegal and undue benefit to ‘crony friends’ by the highest echelons of power in the Modi Government, in the unilateral purchase of 36 Rafale Jets from Dassault Aviation i.e India’s biggest ever defence contract worth Rs 60,150 Crore”.
Party memorandum said that CAG has a constitutional mandate and authority to scrutinize every document and urged the CAG to carry out the forensic audit of the deal and to bring all facts on record to enable the parliament to fix the accountability for Rafale deal.
Rafale deal was signed by NDA government in September 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation of France and it was a government to government agreement.
