We don't want scrapping of Rafale deal, says PC

The Congress on Thursday slammed the Modi government for forcing the Comptroller and Auditor General to redact the pricing details about the Rafale fighter aircraft from its report submitted to Parliament.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the most important pace of the CAG report on Rafale was the Preface, which mentions that the commercial details of the Rafale contract were redacted from the report at the insistence of the Ministry of Defence.

“If you will now read pages 126 to 141, I dare say that the pages will make no sense to a person of average intelligence,” he told a press conference here referring to the blank rows and columns of a Table showing item-wise cost analysis of the Rafale deal.

At the same time, Chidambaram made it clear that the Congress was not asking for the Rafale deal to be scrapped.

“We are not asking the Rafale aircraft deal be scrapped. We are not asking that. We want the Rafale aircraft. Actually we are asking to get 126 Rafale aircraft,” he said.

Chidambaram wanted the Modi government to tell upfront what was the monetary gain to Dassault due to amortisation of the India Specific Enhancement costs over 36 aircraft rather than 126 aircraft.

He also wanted to know the monetary gain to Dassault and monetary risk to India because of the waiver of the sovereign guarantee, bank guarantee and escrow account.

Chidambaram reiterated his party's demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the deal, saying only it can call for all relevant records.

The CAG is not God, he said, apparently rejecting the ruling BJP's contention that the national auditor's report should be the final word on the contentious issue.

“The CAG allowed itself to become a joke and an honourable government in future will restore the prestige and credibility of the institution,” Chidambaram said.