PM committed treason, acted as Ambani's middleman:Rahul

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of acting as Anil Ambani's “middle-man” and of committing treason by sharing defence secrets with regard to the Rafale deal.

Reading out an E-mail from an executive of Airbus, Rahul claimed that Ambani had met French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian 10 days before Prime Minister Modi's official visit to France and had mentioned about a memorandum of understanding that was being prepared for signing then.

“First it was a matter of corruption and procedures, but now it is an Official Secrets Act issues. This is now treason, nothing less. Narendra Modi is doing what spies do. He is informing somebody about a defence matter,” Rahul said at a press conference at the AICC Headquarters here.

Rahul said neither the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar nor the then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar knew about the discussion on the Rafale deal.

“The PM is the only other person who knows about this. In fact Anil Ambani opened his company after this meeting (with the French Defence Minister). The Prime Minister is acting as Anil Ambani's middleman, it is in black-and-white for anyone who reads the email,” Rahul said.

“I have made it clear, there is no doubt in everybody's mind that the Prime Minister is corrupt. He has helped Anil Ambani,” the Congress President said.

Rahul also dismissed the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the Rafale deal, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

“The CAG report is an attempt at a cover-up. CAG report is a worthless report,” the Congress President said and described the government auditor as a 'Chowkidaar' (watchman) Auditor General.

"CAG is chowkidaar (watchman) Auditor General report, written by Chowkidaar, audited by Chowkidaar,” he said.