The opposition propaganda led by the Congress on the Rafale issue has been built carefully on a pack of lies and concoctions. Since there was no irregularity in the deal, the opposition and the Congress president have found it convenient to corner the government with lies and concoctions. Adding to this pack of lies, Congress president went on to claim that HAL had manufactured the Mirage 2000 aircraft for the Indian Air Force. He was speaking on the floor of the Parliament on the Rafale deal. The Congress president has been shedding crocodile tears for HAL for quite some time and this was another naive attempt at trying to show that he is concerned about HAL.
It is important to mention here that the Mirage 2000 was not built in India. India had purchased 40 Mirage 2000 aircraft from the French government. The aircraft had been manufactured by Dassault, the same company which has manufactured Rafale. However, it appears that Rahul Gandhi appears to be a clueless politician who is desperate to corner the Modi government over the Rafale deal, even if it means lying on the face of the record. The Congress president seems to know nothing about the issue and still, he wants to talk about it. But the Congress president wanted to paint the government in a bad light over the Rafale deal and therefore, he found it convenient to invent a falsehood and then propagate it with all the vigour.
But the fact that Rahul Gandhi has once again lied in the course of the debate over the Rafale deal does not come as much of a surprise. Even after being exposed about how he has been lying about the Rafale deal, the Congress president continues to speak lies about the major defence deal. Some of the oft-repeated lies include the claim that the correct procedure had not been adhered to while finalising the Rafale deal. This allegation again is a mere figment of the imagination. Rahul Gandhi went on to the extent of alleging that Prime Minister Modi “broke every single procedure and law to favour” Anil Ambani. However, in reality, the proper procedure had been strictly adhered to. Approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had been taken at each and every stage in the Rafale deal. The CCS was always kept in the loop and its approval taken wherever necessary.
Another lie that Rahul Gandhi and his sycophants have been repeating on a regular basis is that the Reliance Defence is a new company with little or no experience in defence manufacturing. Rahul Gandhi reportedly said, “HAL was given the Rafale contract to generate jobs. HAL had 70 years of experience, Anil Ambani had 10 days.” This again is a lie that is being shamelessly propagated by the president of the grand old party. The Reliance Defence is not an amateur as was being propagated. It is actually a company established in 1997 by the name of Pipavav Shipment. It was taken over by the Reliance group in 2015 and its name changed to Reliance Defence. Later, it was renamed as Reliance Naval and Engineering Limited. Moreover, all the commotion being created around Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence makes it seem as if Reliance is the only offset partner. However, that is not the case; Reliance Defence is only one of the several players selected as offset partner by Dassault Aviation. Reliance Defence is just one of the 30 offset partners which are a part of this deal. Finance minister Arun Jaitley further exposed Rahul Gandhi’s cluelessness and lack of knowledge when the minister said, “Congress manufacturing corruption charges. Offset was UPA policy, under the policy, 30-50 per cent materials had to be bought from India. Reliance is an offset supplier; Rahul thinks it is Rafale manufacturer. Rafale deal is of Rs 58,000 crore. How can offset deal be of Rs 1,30,000 crore then.”
It is clear that Rahul Gandhi and his sycophants stand exposed in the open. It has become clear that the Congress misled the nation in a big way in connection with the Rafale deal. Now, the Congress president is trying to invent new facts and add them to his pack of lies in a desperate attempt to corner the government in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
