Congress MP Shashi Tharoor Wednesday said the Rafale issue is 20 times bigger than the Bofors issue but the media is "not giving any importance like before".
He said the media in the late 1980s continuously pursued the Bofors issue, and it essentially tarnished the image of then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and led to the Congress' defeat in the election of 1989.
Tharoor said, "In the 1980s, there was not a single day the media did not chase the Bofors issue. Day after day, investigative reporters were sent around the world to find out what happened."
"Today, we have a scam that is 20 times as big in terms of money involved - that is the Rafale scam. Do you see the media giving any importance like before... Not at all," he said
The Rafale controversy took a new turn last month after Francois Hollande, who was French president when the Rs 58,000 crore deal was announced, was quoted as saying by French publication Mediapart that France was given "no choice" on selection of the Indian partner for Dassault, the manufacturer of Rafale jets. '
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