Congress district committee meets in Silchar, takes a jibe on Modi, Rafale; Gautam Roy gives it a miss

Congress workers, on Saturday, slammed the Narendra-Modi led BJP government for associating Reliance Defence Limited with the Rafale Deal despite the defence venture’s zero experience in aircraft sector.

The Rafale deal was first initiated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2012 as part of which the Rafale fighter jets were about to be inducted into the Indian Air Force. An international bid for 126 aircrafts was floated at that time, however, after the BJP came to power in 2016, both the countries (India and France) signed a memorandum of understanding for the purchase of 36 aircrafts in a flyway condition.

Reliance Defence Limited has secured an offset contract for Rs. 30,000 crore and a consequent lifecycle cost contract of Rs. 1 lakh crore in the Rafale deal.

Addressing a news conference here this morning, former union minister Deepa Dasmunsi said the Rafael deal is one of the biggest scams in the history of India and the citizens of the country should know about it.

“What is the reason that Anil Ambani’s company (Reliance Defence Limited) was given the contract despite the fact that it is having no experience at all in aircraft sector,” she questioned, adding that it was a “favour” by Modi to his capitalist cronies.

Launching a sharp attack on Modi government, she said though the BJP government had promised about “acche din” and vowed to make India corruption-free, the government itself is involved in scams, she alleged.

Speaking about the demonetisation move, she said that a recent report by the RBI had revealed that 99.3 per cent of the demonetised notes were back into the system which clearly shows it was a failure of the government, she said.

“Where is the black money the government had claimed to unearth,” she questioned.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Ripun Bora said the Prime Minister had kept the entire matter non-transparent and far from the knowledge of the general public. The Congress has started a two-week long protest against the scam which concludes on September 7, he said.

Interestingly, former minister and heavy-weight Congress leader Gautam Roy was not present at the press conference. Speculations are being made from various quarters that Roy would soon join the BJP and is eyeing the MP ticket from the saffron brigade in the upcoming elections.

Among others, Silchar MP Sushmita Dev, former minister Ajit Singh, Lakhipur MLA Rajdeep Goala and Silchar district Congress committee president Pradip Dey were present.