by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Tariq Anwar
Katihar (Bihar) : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) General Secretary Tariq Anwar on Friday quit the party and the Lok Sabha, expressing his disagreement with party chief Sharad Pawar who gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal.
“I have resigned from the NCP as well as the membership of Lok Sabha because I totally disagree with Sharad Pawar’s statement in support of Modi on Rafale deal,” he told the media here.
“The Prime Minister is fully involved in the Rafale deal,” he said, reacting to Pawar’s television interview in which he had said he did not think people doubt Modi’s intentions on a personal level.
Pawar’s statement was welcomed by BJP chief Amit Shah who praised him for “placing national interests above party politics”.
Anwar, 67, who was expelled from the Congress in 1999 along with Pawar and P.A. Sangma after they questioned the foreign origins of Sonia Gandhi, said he personally respected and honoured Pawar but felt his statement in support of Modi was unfortunate.
“I do not agree with his statement and have resigned from the party and membership of Parliament,” the MP from Katihar said.
Anwar told IANS that he was forced to take this decision to prove his moral stand in politics. “I am telling people one thing and cannot take another stand,” he said.
Anwar, who has been a Lok Sabha member several times and in the Rajya Sabha once, said he will talk to his supporters before taking a move to join any party.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
New Delhi : The slugfest over the Rafale deal continued on Sunday with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley citing conflicting media reports on Francois Hollande’s claims regarding a private firm becoming an as offset partner in the jet deal at the instance of Modi government and asserting that there was “no partnership as suggested by the former French President”.
Riding on Hollande’s remark to French website Mediapart that that the Indian government had proposed choosing a private firm as an offset partner, the opposition has been gunning for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime with Congress president Rahul Gandhi even claiming that the former French President had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “thief”.
While both the Defence Ministry and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad have maintained that the Indian government had no role in the choice of the offset partner, Jaitley took to social media to reiterate the assertions and pointed to Hollande’s “contrasting remarks”.
“A controversy is sought to be created on the basis of a statement made by Hollande, that the Reliance Defence ‘partnership’ with Dassault Aviation was entered at the suggestion of the Indian GOvernment.
“In a subsequent statement the former President has sought to suggest that Reliance Defence emerged on the scene after the agreement with the Indian Government was entered into. He has, in a subsequent statement, said that he is ‘not aware’ if government ever lobbied for Reliance Defence and that athe partners chose themselves’. Truth cannot have two versions,” wrote Jaitley in a blogpost.
Jaitley also cited the French government and Dassault Aviation (makers of the Rafale jets) of having “categorically denied the correctness of Hollande’s first statement” (made to Mediapart)
“The French government has stated that the decision with regard to the offset contracts of Dassault Aviation are taken by the company and not the Government. Dassault Aviation itself has suggested that they have entered into multiple contracts with several public sector and private sector companies with regard to the offset contracts and the decision is entirely theirs,” he said.
“Without commenting on the correctness or otherwise of a controversy in the French media, it may be mentioned that the former French President Hollande, is countering statement made against him with regard to a conflict of interest in his dealing with the Reliance Defence.
“The accuracy of the statements made by the individuals may be questioned but circumstances never lie,” said Jaitley, addin that “there is no ‘partnership’, as suggested by the former President with regard to the 36 Rafale aircraft”.
Contending that it was a “government to government agreement” with no manufacturing is to be done in India, Jaitley said it was “erroneous for anybody to suggest that there is a partnership in the supply of the 36 Rafale aircraft”.
Citing a media report that quoted Hollande as saying that “France did not choose Reliance in any way”, Jaitley said: “His (Hollande) second statement in Montreal, Canada, to AFP makes the veracity of his first statement even more questionable”.
“One Reliance Group was a part of this deal since 2012. It dropped out of defence production. The other Reliance Group was already in defence. They are not partners in the Rafale deal. They have no contract with either the government of India or of France. They were not selected as one of the many offset partners by any government.
“‘The partners (Dassault and Reliance) selected themselves’ as former President Hollande now says. This contradicts his first questionable statement which the French government and Dassault have denied. The facts contradict the same,” he said.
The AFP report claims Hollande as saying that he was “unaware” about if India had put pressure on Reliance and Dassault to work together and said “only Dassault can comment on this”.
Jaitley reiterated that neither the French or the Indian Government has any say in selecting the offset partner and targeted Gandhi over the issue.
“The former French President’s first statement rhymes with Rahul Gandhi’s prediction.
The Congress Party’s official handle on 31.8.2018 had carried the tweet of one of its leader “It is evident that Anil Ambani bribed President Hollande through his actor-partner to get the Dassault partnership”.
“For the Congress Party to allege that a former President had been bribed by an Indian business group and then use him as a primary witness, particularly when he is facing criticism for an alleged conflict of interest within his own country.
“Rahul Gandhi has made an absurd suggestion that the interest of Indian soldiers has been compromised with. By whom? The UPA which delayed the acquisition which would have added to the Military’s combat ability or the NDA which expedited the same at a lower cost,” he added.
Notwithstanding the contradictory report by the AFP, an India media house (NDTV) has reported that Hollande’s office has reiterated that the former French President stands by his statement that the Indian government proposed Reliance Defence as the India partner for the 36 Rafale jet deal.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
New Delhi : A Congress delegation on Wednesday met the Comptroller and Auditor General to seek a probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets by the Narendra Modi government.
The delegation consisting of senior party leaders A.K. Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Mukul Vasnik, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala, Rajeev Shukla and Vivek Tankha reached the CAG office around 11 a.m.
According to the party, the delegation would also submit a memorandum seeking the probe.
The party has already held a series of press conferences on the issue, raising several questions on the deal done by the Modi government with France to purchase the fighter jets.
The government has, however, denied all the allegations.
The move is seen as an effort by the party to raise the pitch over the issue ahead of the Assembly polls later this year and the parliamentary elections in 2019.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Kapil Sibal
By Prashant Sood,
New Delhi : The Modi government violated procedures in the Rafale deal with the External Affairs Ministry not in the know before it was announced in 2015, alleges senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who wants the government to tell the truth to the people, including the price of the fighter jets.
“You buy 36 Rafales off-the-shelf without informing the foreign ministry. Even the CEO of Dassault did not know 15 days before the announcement. He thought 95 per cent of the deal with HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) had been done, only five per cent was left,” Sibal told IANS in an interview.
He said then Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar was not aware of the deal two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced it in France on April 10, 2015.
In his just-released book, “Shades of Truth–Journey Derailed”, the former Union minister refers to the fighter jet deal continuing to be a mystery. Modi did not take into confidence the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, when on a visit to Paris in April 2015, he announced the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft off-the-shelf.
On the eve of Modi’s visit to France, at a customary press conference, Jaishankar told the media that HAL was Dassault Aviation’s partner, thereby suggesting that the public sector undertaking was ready to strike the deal.
Modi broke convention by announcing the deal on foreign soil and surprised everyone by snatching it away from HAL. In March 2015, Dassault and HAL had publicly announced that the deal was 90 per cent done. By April 2015, on his visit to France, the deal was undone. “The stepmotherly treatment of a PSU surprised even those in government. Modi preferred a private company to a PSU for reasons that he knows best,” Sibal says in the book.
“Let’s look at the facts. Let’s assume for a moment that all the procedures were followed. On April 8, Foreign Secretary makes a public statement when asked if Rafale is going to be finalised when the PM goes there (to France). He says no… prime ministers don’t talk about these deals. This is not on the table at all. Our leaders are going to talk about different issues. So obviously the foreign ministry had no knowledge. Parrikar says he was told about it three days before,” Sibal said.
“What’s the harm in telling us the price of components? Nobody wants to know the technology of those components. We want to know the price. What is the harm in telling us the price? These are questions that have to be answered. If you don’t answer them, there is an ill of suspicion,” he said.
Asked about government’s assertion that there is no wrongdoing in the deal, he said: “It is like saying that the Birla diaries have certain names but there is no evidence. Unless you investigate how will you get evidence?”
Sibal said the previous deal negotiated by the Congress-led United Progressive Aliance (UPA) government for the purchase of 126 Rafales was cancelled by the present government.
“That deal was cancelled, you need an entirely new procedure. And remember, Eurofigter at that point in time offered 20 per cent discount. None of the procedures were followed. There are detailed guidelines and procedures. There is no price negotiating committee (PNC) for this deal, no contract negotiating committee (CNC),” he said.
Asked about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) contention that the deal had gone through the channels of the PNC and the CNC, Sibal said the procedures BJP leaders were referring to were for the deal negotiated by the UPA government. He said the CNC and the PNC were formed after Modi announced the deal.
There was no CCS (Cabinet Committee on Security) before the deal. “How could there be CCS when he said I buy 36 Rafales off-the-shelf. So you can ex-post facto say anything but there are procedures to be followed.”
Asked if the Modi government was rattled by Congress allegations on the Rafale deal, Sibal said the issue was not if it was rattled or not.
“People should know the truth. Why does the government not tell them the truth? What is the harm in telling us the price? After all, it has gone from Rs 520 odd crores to Rs 1,600 crores.”
Asked if Rafale will be party’s poll plank in the forthcoming assembly elections and the next Lok Sabha polls, Sibal said poll planks were already on the ground.
Referring to the petrol and diesel prices reaching record levels, he said the common man was hit hard. “These are the poll planks. Remember what Modi said what I will do in 60 months what Congress did not do in 60 years and he was right. Because Congress never brought the price of petrol to Rs 86 a litre.”
On the rupee falling to record levels against the dollar, Sibal said: “What happened to chappan inch ki chaati and 48 ka rupiah (56 inch chest and Rs 48 against a dollar). It is now almost 72 against a dollar. It is aging faster than anybody else.”
“And see the current account deficit. The price of crude was $28 at one point in time. When it was $145, we were not selling petrol at Rs 86 per litre,” he added.
Asked if the opposition has got its act together now to take on the BJP, Sibal said: “What is the opposition ultimately? It is the people who oppose. Political parties are only vehicles.”
The former Union minister said the electoral battle has to be fought at various levels and the BJP’s performance in 2014 in states such as Uttar Pradesh was due to division of opposition votes.
“Don’t attribute this to some great Modi effect. It is lack of our ability to get together to put up a united front and that is what is going to happen in the Lok Sabha election,” Sibal maintained.
Answering a question about “faultlines” in the UPA government that he mentioned in the book, Sibal noted: “I said we could not manage the perception game. And there was a silent conspiracy at work which we could not gauge. So we were perceived to be weak. I have said all that,” he pointed out.
Asked who were behind the conspiracy, Sibal said the stakeholders in the system had conspired together to create a sense of distrust against the then government.
“There were a lot of stakeholders. BJP was one of them. After all, how did Ramdev come? That Ramlila Maidan, lakhs of people being fed, who brought them, who was spending the money? Then this whole India Against Corruption campaign” he said, adding that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) hand was at play.
He said the Lokpal was at the centre of the campaign and noted that nobody talks about it now. “They were not honest about it. This was not a genuine demand. Obviously, there was some conspiracy at work.”
He said the UPA did not perhaps gauge the gravity of forces of disruption against it. He said Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had been accusing the UPA government of policy paralysis but it gave them a historic growth of 8.2 per cent for 10 years.
(Prashant Sood can be contacted at prashant.s@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
Chandigarh : Congress on Saturday alleged that Modi government lied on the India-specific enhancements in the Rs 41,000-crore Rafale deal and demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s reply.
The party said India-specific enhancements in the NDA deal were the same as the UPA deal.
“Yet the Prime Minister and Defence Minister are lying on enhancement of cost per aircraft from Rs 5,26 crore to Rs 1,670 crore,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala in a statement.
“Modi government has been caught in a web of lies of its own making,” he added.
The party said the deal caused a massive loss of Rs 41,000 crore to public exchequer by purchasing the 36 Rafale aircraft with the same configuration at thrice the price i.e. Rs. 526 crore per aircraft during Congress-UPA to Rs 1,670 crore per aircraft during Modi government.
The party said the deal squandered away ‘national interests’ by forgoing the transfer of technology to public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).
Surjewala said Modi, Sitharaman and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley “brazenly lied” when they tried to whitewash Modi government’s “sins” by implying that the aircraft bought by the BJP government was different on account of India-specific enhancements.
“Information in public domain affirms that according to the ‘Air Staff Qualitative Requirements’ (ASQR) provided by the Indian Air Force (IAF) there were 13 India-specific enhancements demanded by India during the 126 aircraft MMRCA Contract issued by UPA government,” said Surjewala.
It included Radar enhancement, Helmet-mounted display, Towed decoy system, Low band jammer, Radio altimeter and Ability to start and operate from High Altitude Airfields.
“Combat aircraft tender issued by Congress government clearly envisaged ‘full weaponry’ and ‘transfer of technology’, which is missing in the BJP government’s deal.
“RFP issued by Congress government clearly states cost of initial purchase, transfer of technology and licensed production,” said the leader.
The party said claim of Modi government that cost is increased on account on additional technical specifications was blatantly false.
“The Rafale aircraft being purchased earlier (UPA-Congress Govt) and now (Modi government) including ‘its associated systems and weapons’ are the same as tested and approved by Indian Air Force during UPA-Congress government,” he added.
—IANS
