After a French online portal leveled allegations of corruption on Congress in the Rafale deal between 2007 and 2012, the BJP has come out with a ‘no-holds-barred’ approach. While earlier BJP used to sit back and allow Congress to steer the narrative, despite the latter not having substantial proof – the saffron party, this time around has surprised everyone with its aggressive approach. Congress has been left shell-shocked as it wasn’t expecting such an offensive hit back.
INC means I need Commission – Sambit Patra:
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Tuesday addressed the media and shred Congress to pieces. He said, “INC (Indian National Congress) means ‘I need Commission’. It would not be an over-projection that during the UPA tenure, they had a deal within every deal and they could still not strike a deal,”.
“Let Rahul Gandhi answer from Italy – why did you and your party try to spread lies about Rafale all these years? Now it has been revealed that their own government was in power in 2007 to 2012 when commissions were paid, in which a middleman’s name has also come up,”.
He further took on the Gandhi family by stating, “The address of corruption is 10 Janpath, however, since the BJP government has come in power, it has been rendered ‘homeless’,”.
INC means 'I need Commission'.
It would not be an over-projection that during the UPA tenure, they had a deal within every deal and they could still not strike a deal- Dr @sambitswaraj pic.twitter.com/LFuiJmAB5J
— BJP (@BJP4India) November 9, 2021
Chasten the Congress fair and square:
The idea is clear for the BJP – chasten the Congress to an extent that the synonym corruption and Congress are intertwined into one. After Sambit’s hail of fire, Congress haphazardly targeted the BJP by accepting that a scam transpired in the UPA era but deflected from it by questioning what BJP was doing to nab the said culprit.
The Congress said: “The latest revelations in Operation Cover-up reveal the dubious nexus between (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government-CBI-Enforcement Directorate to bury the Rafale Corruption”.
No matter how Congress tries to spin the narrative this time, the truth is that BJP has pinned it on the mat. And the only way to stop the humiliation is to let go of the Rafale djinn, which has only brought misery to the party.
What did the French portal reveal?
Reported by TFI, Mediapart had reinforced Rahul Gandhi’s long-standing allegations that the purchase of Rafale jets had a scam, however with a twist. The news portal has claimed that a middleman named Sushen Gupta, received pay-offs of fake invoices to ‘facilitate’ the Rafale deal during the UPA regime.
Reportedly, Gupta received 7.5 million euros as kickbacks between 2007 and 2012. According to the French website, the bribes were paid to Gupta through his Mauritius entity Interstellar, in the guise of “dubious IT contracts”.
Also read: So, Rahul Gandhi was right after all. Rafale deal does have a scam. A UPA scam
Sushen Gupta – an influential UPA era middleman:
It is pertinent to note that Sushen Mohan Gupta was a very influential middleman during the UPA era. In 2019, he was arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case, another defence deal scam worth crores, during the UPA government. In the AugustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, Gupta had made millions of Euros and was simultaneously minting money in the Rafale deal by receiving the aforementioned kickbacks.
According to investigation agencies, in the AugustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, “More than Rs 50 crore shown to have been received from ‘RG’ between 2004 to 2016, whereas the ‘RG’ identified by Gupta, i.e., Rajat Gupta, had admitted to have cash transactions with Sushen from 2007 onwards and the same are being quantified”.
Rahul and Congress digging a grave for themselves:
Before the 2019 general election, Congress tried tooth and nail to dig a scam out of the Rafale deal. The party deployed its loonies in the left-liberal media establishment to create a story out of thin air and tarnish the image of the Modi government.
The Congress party tried to take on the Modi government on the Rafale deal, but the equations have now turned the exact opposite because the Congress-led UPA government is now under question for 14.6 million Euros of kickbacks paid for the deal.
After the NDA Government came to power, the UPA-era deal was scrapped and the Indian Government secured a government-to-government deal that involved India buying 36 Rafale jets directly from the French Government.
The UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar maintained, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison was moot.
Congress is now on a sticky wicket and BJP is not looking to relent. The coming few days might see BJP hound the Congress even more incessantly.
Proverbial three fingers were pointing at Congress when it pointed a finger towards BJP in this deal.