Slamming the Congress Party for its refusal to accept the Supreme Court's clean chit to the Modi government in the controversial Rafale deal, BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra alleged that the Congress, which accuses the BJP of favouring the Ambanis, is known for its “mama culture”.
“The Congress regime is used to the 'mama culture'. They have Christian Michel "mama", who has been extradited to India in the Agusta Westland case and we are also aware as to how Quattrochi "mama" had played a role in the Bofors deal. So, it is the Congress party which is used to commercial favouritism, middlemen and 'dalali', while under Modi, we have seen how performance and national security is important,” said Patra, while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, on Monday, even as the BJP held 70 press meets across the country to call out “Congress's lie” in the Rafale issue.
READ: Congress urges SC to recall Rafale judgment, says govt gave false info to court
Citing the 29-page judgement of the Supreme Court of India, Patra said that the three judges had categorically come to a conclusion. Quoting para 24 of the judgement, he read, “In view of our findings on all three aspects and having heard the matter in detail, we find no reason for the intervention of this court in the sensitive issue of purchase of 36 defence aircrafts by the Indian government. Perception of indigenous cannot be the basis for the inquiry for a court, especially in such matters,” said Patra alleging Rahul Gandhi had lied through his teeth on the Rafale issue.
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Further, Patra said the opposition, especially Rahul Gandhi had made three allegations—on pricing of Rafale aircrafts, the process of procurement being faulted and commercial favouritism in the offset clause mentioning Ambani.
“Rahul Gandhi used to repeat it every day that some Rs 30,000 crore had gone from taxpayers pocket to Ambani's pocket. All these have been taken down by the SC and it did not mince words when they said they had examined the pricing detail and procurement, too and they did not find anything wrong in it. As far as commercial favouritism is concerned, the court stated that (para 33), it does not find any substantial material to show that this is a case of commercial favouritism to any party by the Indian government as the option of choose the Indian offset partner (IOP) does not rest with the Indian government,” contended Patra, adding that all three sets of PILs, which he would like to call as “politically inclined litigations” were thrown out by the SC.
“Rahul Gandhi has lost his face today. They tried to play politics even in an extremely sensitive issue like procurement of defence deals,” he added.
