India has purchased 36 Rafale jets from France-based Dassault Aviation.
Rafale deal commission allegation: A big Congress vs Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) war has erupted over the Rafale fighter jet deal. Moments after the Congress, citing media reports, charged that kickbacks were paid, the BJP on Tuesday hit back describing the grand old party as the house of 'corruption'.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, senior BJP leader Sambit Patra said that the reports in the French media were a prove that the Congress-led UPA government was corrupt.
"INC (Indian National Congress) means 'I need Commission'. It would not be an over-projection that during the UPA tenure, they had a deal within every deal and they could still not strike a deal," Patra said.
"The address of corruption is 10 Janpath, however, since the BJP government has come in power, it has been rendered 'homeless'," he went on to add referring to Congress president Sonia Gandhi's official residence in the capital.
Patra's stinging remark came after Congress' Pawan Khera said that the latest French media report has revealed the nexus between the Modi government, CBI and Enforcement Directorate to bury the corruption in the Rafale deal.
What was reported in French media
French investigative journal Mediapart has made fresh claims that alleged bogus invoices were used that enabled French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help it secure the Rafale deal with India.
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According to Mediapart's investigation, Dassault Aviation paid the kickbacks to the intermediary in Mauritius between 2007 and 2012.
Mediapart had reported in July that a French judge has been appointed to lead a "highly sensitive" judicial investigation into suspected corruption" and favouritism in the Rs 59,000-crore inter-governmental deal with India for the supply of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
The Rafale deal
The NDA government had inked the deal on September 23, 2016, to procure 36 Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation after a nearly seven-year exercise to procure 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force did not fructify during the UPA regime.
The Congress accused the government of massive irregularities in the deal, alleging that it was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government during the negotiations for the MMRCA.
(With inputs from PTI)
