By Adv. Sachin Godambe
A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi dismissed petitions seeking a court-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the deal between India and France for the Rafale fighter jets. However, that doesn’t mean the scam didn’t happen.
Nobody knew about the changes made by PM in this deal without cancelling the earlier one. Neither the Cabinet nor Defence Acquisition Council, not even the Defence Minister. An Offset is being given to a company which has no experience in manufacturing defence equipment or aircraft. Ideally speaking -NO PRIVATE COMPANY SHOULD BE GIVEN ANY GOVT WORK RELATED TO DEFENCE, ELECTRICITY, WATER, GAS, OIL etc. Reliance, Adani, Tata etc. Private firms should not be allowed to work in these fields, only Govt. should work & make the profit from it which will not only increase Govt’s revenue but will also bring down prices. But the Supreme court has dismissed the petitions which demanded an enquiry into this corruption and pricing of the Rafael deal given to an inexperienced Anil Ambani’s Reliance Aerostructure Vs HAL who had several years of experience in making aircraft. So these private firms should be taken away from Gas, KG basin, Petroleum, Electricity etc. domains.
The Supreme court has merely indicated that this is beyond their jurisdiction to compel the government to purchase 126 aircraft. It is thus that the opposition led by Rahul Gandhi has strongly demanded an unbiased and fair investigation to establish the facts.
Rafale Deal Announced By PM Even Before Defence Approval
The document shared by the Government to the Supreme Court in October was handed over to the petitioners of the Rs. 59,000 crore Rafale case. On analysing the dates and contents of the document, it further leads to many other questions which have been unanswered till date.
Former French President François Hollande also spills beans on Rafale deal scam & blamed Feku Govt. on this.
As per an exclusive report published by The Wire, in 2017, Dassault has made a mysterious investment of approximately 20 million Euros in a non-defence venture of Anil Ambani. This is a loss-making company which has Zero revenues.
(II) This dead investment also translated into Rs. 284 crore profit for the Ambani group’s Reliance Infrastructure, that sold shares in their subsidiary, Reliance Airport Developers Limited (RADL) at a much higher premium
(III) Rs. 284 crore is three per cent of approximate 15% of Rs. 59,000 crore which Modi government has already paid to Dassault
(IV) As per an analysis by The News Central 24/7, this money could have been routed back to the Ruling Party via electoral bonds initiated by Modi Government. However, the report does state that it is impossible to track any funds transferred via electoral bonds to the BJP.
It is also critical to understand what makes the deal lead to corruption and thus, we need to comprehend the pricing factors for the said agreement. The below charts clearly demonstrate a whopping 40% increase in the pricing paid by Modi Government per Rafale Jet.
A clean chit cannot be given to any case, unless the investigations are carried out and today’s Supreme court verdict does not necessarily mean that there was no corruption in the Rafael scam. The government should clear all facts by cooperating into a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) investigation for the same.
The petitioners, in this case, had asked for an investigation on four grounds:
—Lack of transparency over the pricing of the jets
—An offsets deal that seemed to favour a private firm
—Flouting of due process in closing the deal
The deal isn’t a government-to-government deal at all as it has been pitched because France refused to offer India a sovereign guarantee and instead gave it a letter of comfort
Shouldn’t there be a CAG involvement in this alleged scam to unearth the missing links with regards to the huge amounts paid?
Media should clearly read the official order before spreading misinformation on the same. Congress Media In-Charge, Randeep Surjewala has given the official stand on behalf of the party, stating that today’s Supreme court verdict validates why Congress did not take up this matter in the top court. He also said that SC was not a forum to decide such sensitive defence information. But how come pricing be sensitive defence information?
Don’t know under what pressure these 3 judges given this verdict. Pricing is the main issue here (Congress said their demand was always for a JPC because the main issue is pricing which is outside the purview of the Supreme Court) but how can Pricing issue be beyond Supreme Court’s jurisdiction? If this is true, then no case of corruption should be heard by any court of law in India as the top court itself denied it. Then why Supreme Court cancelled 2G spectrum allocations?
Clearly, Supreme Court led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi had missed a golden opportunity to Right the Wrong. The prime issue of corruption rests with the pricing of Rafale, which can be traced only with a JPC.
Pricing issue cannot be claimed as immunity under Official Secret Act as well. The nation surely deserves more answers than a mere dismissal which as per my opinion is totally wrong. So JPC seems to be the only way forward now in this scam.
