Congress leader and MP Kumari Selja Tuesday lashed out at the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing it of "lying" before the Supreme court in the Rafale aircraft deal case.
Selja insisted that Congress had always demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the deal as it felt that the apex court was not the appropriate forum to decide the issue.
"The Modi government has a habit of lying. Earlier, they lied in public domain and now, they have lied before the Supreme Court on the Rafale deal," Selja said while addressing the media here.
"The Congress party has always said that the Supreme Court is not the appropriate forum to decide on the issues of corruption, pricing, specifications, crony capitalism in the Rafale case. The apex court cannot summon and examine all the file notings, examine witnesses on oath, including questioning the prime minister, as also Defence Ministry officials or accept other evidence. This can only be done by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), she said.
This is the reason why the Congress never went to the Supreme Court and consistently insisted on a JPC probe, the former Union minister said.
"If the BJP has nothing to hide in this matter, why is it shying away from a JPC probe," she asked.
The Supreme Court judgment on the Rafale deal case was based on the "wrong facts" presented by the central government, Selja claimed.
The Supreme Court on Friday had dismissed the pleas, saying there was no occasion to "really doubt the decision-making process" warranting setting aside of the defence contract for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets.
In its judgment, the court made a reference to a CAG report on the deal. It said the CAG report was examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
The government, however, said that it was a misinterpretation by the court.
It never said that the CAG report has been examined, but had only described the normal procedure, the government submitted in an affidavit.
But the Congress insisted that the government presented "wrong facts" before the court during the hearing of pleas challenging the aircraft deal with France, which gave the government a relief in the cases.
Selja also rubbished the demand of the BJP, which had been seeking Rahul Gandhi's resignation following the SC judgment.
The Rajya Sabha MP hit out at the Narendra Modi government, claiming that it caused a loss of Rs 41,205 crore to the public exchequer by way of purchasing 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from Dassault Aviation at a price of Rs 1,670.70 crore per aircraft, as against the earlier price of Rs 526.10 crore.
She also accused the Modi government of bypassing defence procurement procedures, the cabinet committee on security and the defence acquisition council while announcing the off-the-shelf purchase of the 36 Rafale aircraft.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
