CAG submits Rafale Deal report in the Lok Sabha
Guwahati: All confusions, conflicts and suspense over the Comptroller and Auditor General’s findings in the Rafale deal will come to end finally as the report is being filed in Lok Sabha today. CAG has prepared the report in two volumes the first volume of which deals with 10 air acquisitions and the volume two deals with the Rafale deal. Both the volumes are printed together.
A CAG officer states, "Just waiting for the finance ministry to prepare the note which the President signs and then sends to the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman for tabling of the report."
This has also been leaked through trusted sources that the value of 36 Rafale jets will be kept masked in the report. The officer further stated that, "We have two reasons to mask the price. One national security and second the contract signed between the government of France and India about non-disclosure of prices." Hence, the prices of the jets are kept undisclosed.
Retorting to this statement of the CAG officer wherein it is said that the contract between India and France states about the prices kept masked, Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleges in the Lok Sabha that French president Macron himself had said this in a meeting that they have no issues if India wants to disclose the price of the Rafale jets. As alleged by Rahul Gandhi, the French president said this while in a meeting with Rahul, Congress leader Anand Sharma and former PM Dr Manmohan Singh.
The media reports on the Rafale deal at present says that the PMO has conducted parallel negotiations with France on the Rafale deal and in the meanwhile the tabling of the CAG findings is crucial. This has also been alleged against the government that it waived crucial anti-corruption penalty clauses in the deal days before signing the inter-governmental agreement.
Responding to the allegations, the Finance Ministry issued a statement on Monday that such an accusation was “totally a figment of imagination and stretch of facts”.
The Finance Ministry statement said, “It is pertinent to point out here that it is the Department of Expenditure of the Finance Ministry which deals with financial sanctions relating to all the Ministries of the Government of India and, in that capacity, any files relating to defence procurement would be dealt with by the Secretary, Department of Expenditure, and not by Shri Rajiv Mehrishi as Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.”