BJP, Congress at loggerheads over Rafale

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 9

With a few days for the winter session of Parliament, the BJP and Congress clashed on Tuesday over a fresh expose on the Rafale aircraft deal between India and Dassault Aviation by a French media agency. The ruling party accused the Opposition of seeking greater cuts in the deal than it got during its regime.

“The Indian National Congress should be called the ‘I Need Commission’ Party,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, after new revelations that commissions were allegedly paid between 2007 and 2012 for securing the Rafale deal with India.

Hitting back at the BJP, the Congress asked why the ruling dispensation did not probe the incriminating documents it procured from an alleged middleman in the deal.

Seeking a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the matter, the Congress accused the BJP of attempting a “cover-up of the Rafale deal corrpution under its regime”.

The slugfest followed French media portal Mediapart’s claims that alleged bogus invoices were used enabling French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help it secure the Rafale deal.

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