New Delhi, Feb 13 (UNI) Reiterating the stand taken on the Rafale fighter jet deal, Opposition parties on Wednesday rejected the claim by the Narendra Modi Government that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) upheld the decision to buy 36 flyaway aircraft from France and alleged that the government has misused the constitutional body.
Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that the CAG report pointed out the Opposition’s stand that there was no bank guarantee or no sovereign guarantee and no escrow account.
“Rafale story unfolds. At the end of Chapter 4 (of the CAG report), what do we have? A costlier aircraft and a longer delivery period!”, said the former Finance Minister and added that there was no anti-corruption clause in the deal.
Taking on the government, BSP chief Mayawati said the CAG report is neither complete nor fully correct in the eyes of public.
“The much awaited CAG report on Rafale tabled in Rajya Sabha is neither complete nor fully correct in the eyes of public. Why constitutional bodies are under stress and not been able to work with full honesty in the BJP Government. Country is worried”, she tweeted.
In a series of tweets, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the CAG’s entire report on this is suspect as the CAG himself was in the Finance Ministry when the Rafale deal was inked. “He cannot audit actions he was a part of, " he said.
Mr Yechury alleged that the Indian tax payers lost Euro 574 million in the deal and added that without the bank guarantee clauses, the deal was saving for Dassault Aviation and not the Indian government.
“CAG lambasts the Modi government for having NO proposal by which to meet the shortfall as Mr Modi agreed to buy just 36 Jets and scrapped the 126 the Indian Air Force needed,” he tweeted.
The Left party leader said that “all this chopping and changing and a blow to propriety and procedure, just to benefit a crony industrialist who was rewarded and public-sector HAL was thrown out.”
Hours before the government tabled the CAG report, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge also slammed the government, "the Centre is prejudiced. They have already made a decision, and this report holds no value”.
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