New Delhi: Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a verbal attack on Congress after the new media report surfaced over alleged bribery in the Rafale deal.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on Tuesday said 'INC' means 'I Need Commission' and demanded that Rahul Gandhi answer the bribery allegations. He alleged that before 2013, a bribe of Rs 65 crore was given for the Rafale deal.
Slamming the Congress party Sambit Patra further said, "bribe was given in the Rafale deal that took place between 2007 and 2012."
Referring to the article published by the French portal Mediapart, Sambit Patra said that the report has put forth the truth and it is heartbreaking.
While asking the Congress party to answer, BJP spokesperson Patra said, "Let Rahul Gandhi answer from Italy - why did you and your party try to spread lies about Rafale all these years? Now it has been revealed that their own government was in power from 2007 to 2012 when commissions were paid, in which a middleman's name has also come up."
In response to the accusations levelled by the BJP, Congress said, "The latest revelations in Operation Cover-up reveal the dubious nexus between (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government-CBI-Enforcement Directorate to bury the Rafale Corruption."
As per the Mediapart's report, Dassault Aviation had paid a bribe of 7.5 million euros to a middleman in order to secure the deal of 36 Rafale fighter jets to India.
It further said that despite the availability of the documents regarding the corruption, Indian agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) failed to investigate the matter.
Congress said that earlier on October 4, 2018, a former BJP minister and a senior lawyer handed over documents to the then Director of CBI. After that on October 11, 2018, the Mauritius government also handed over documents to the CBI. After that, no investigation begins and in the middle of the night Alok Verma is removed and Nageshwar Rao is being appointed as the Director of CBI.
Congress said that this is not a case of a 60-65 crore scam, this is the "greatest defence scam."
The Congress said that the UPA government had held talks to buy a Rafale fighter jet including technology transfer for Rs 526.10 crore after an international tender.
Modi government bought the same Rafale fighter plane (without any tender) for 1670 crores and without transfer of technology to India the difference in cost of 36 jets is around 41,205 crores.