Jaitley rejects Cong demand

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 14

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today rejected the Congress’ demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal, saying the allegations have been found to be “imaginary and piece of fiction writing”.

Addressing a press conference with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaitley argued: “In defence matters once judiciary has taken a decision there is no scope for political institutions to probe Rafale… Reviews of this kind cannot be done by a body capable of divisions on party lines like the JPC.”

The Supreme Court today dismissed petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France under an inter-government agreement. Jaitley cited the example of the JPC on Bofors artillery gun purchase scandal, saying the JPC on it (report submitted in April 1988) gave a report of which every word turned out to be “incorrect”. The JPC had given a clean chit to the then Rajiv Gandhi government for the purchase of 410 pieces of the Bofors gun from Sweden at a cost of Rs 1,450 crore.

On Rafale allegations, he said: “It was fiction writing that there was no Defence Acquisition Council or there was no Cabinet Committee on Security. This was fiction writing to compromise national security… Whatever was said was untruth. We have protected security and commercial interests of the country.” 

He warned if honest deals were brought under cloud then civil servants and armed forces officials would think twice before taking a decision. Jaitley said: “Falsehood has a very short life. In this case, it was a few months. Falsehood lowers the credibility of its creators. The disrupters have lost on all counts.” Slamming the Congress, he said: “A family (referring to the Gandhis) is not above the Supreme Court.”

Dismissing claims by the Opposition that the deal was struck to benefit Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence, the Finance Minister said the deal protected both security and commercial interest of the country.

Earlier speaking in the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi to apologise to Parliament for ‘misleading’ the nation and causing ‘damage’ to the country’s international reputation when levelling allegations on the purchase of the Rafale jets.