Cong moves privilege motion on Rafale deal in LS

Congress leaders on Monday gave notice for moving a breach of privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly misleading the Supreme Court on the Rafale fighter aircraft purchase deal.

The notices of breach of privilege against Modi were submitted by Congress leaders K C Venugopal, Sunil Jakhar and Ranjeet Ranjan and CPI(M) leader Mohd Salim in the Lok Sabha.

"The privilege notices are under my consideration," Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said.

In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad submitted a breach of privilege motion against Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

"It was the Law Ministry that gave the go ahead for presenting the affidavit before the Supreme Court," he said.

Jakhar accused the prime minister of deliberately misleading the Supreme Court and Parliament in connection with the recent judgement on the Rafale fighter Jet deal.

"The basis of the SC order on Rafale deal was a report by the Comptroller and Audits General (CAG), which is non-existent and not shared with Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee," Jakhar said in the notice submitted to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

He said the Modi government had "mis-represented" facts to the Supreme Court while mentioning that that the pricing details of the Rafale jets have been shared with the CAG, whose report in the matter had been examined by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee.

"The government has not only misled the Supreme Court over the Rafale deal by placing wrong facts in the affidavit to hide their dubious role but also cast aspersion on Parliament and its related committees such as the PAC," Jakhar said.