Armed with Jaya Jaitly's conviction, Congress targets BJP on Rafale

Armed with the conviction of NDA ally Jaya Jaitly in a defence scam dating back to the Vajpayee government, Congress on Friday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that the truth about the Rafale deal would come out only after a thorough investigation into the matter.

“The verdict of the court in Jaya Jaitly case highlights the need to investigate the truth of the Rafale deal. It also proves that truth needs to be investigated and is not what the BJP claims to be,” Congress spokesman Jaiveer Shergill told reporters here.

Earlier this week, Jaitly was convicted in the ‘Operation Westend’ case relating to the purchase of Hand Held Thermal Imagers in which she was caught on camera accepting bribes while sitting at the residence of the then Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Fernandes was a leader of the Samata Party of which Jaitly was the President.

Shergill recalled that former BJP President Bangaru Laxman was convicted by a CBI court in 2012 for accepting bribes while sitting in BJP office.

“The conviction verdicts prove that the BJP and their partners are not corruption-free but investigation free and the truth about Rafale deal needed an investigation by an independent agency,” Shergill said.

The Congress spokesman said the capability of the Rafale aircraft did not grant the BJP immunity from the accountability on the issues of inflated costs, bypassing of rules and regulations and giving preference to a zero experience private player over a public sector undertaking.

Shergill demanded an apology from the Prime Minister and an explanation to the nation on the rampant corruption in defence deals under the NDA-BJP regime.