Congress, CPM corner govt over Rafale plane deal

New Delhi: Cornering the government over Rafale fighter plane deal, Congress and CPI (M) on Tuesday demanded a probe into the alleged kickbacks paid to a "middleman" in the jet deal.

Slamming the government over the jet deal, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that 'karma' is the ledger of one's action and no one can escape it. The former Congress president attacked government after a French media report claimed that 1.1 million Euros was paid to a "middleman" by the aircraft manufacturer, a charge that was denied by the BJP as baseless.

Notably, Rahul Gandhi has been alleging that commissions have been paid in the Rafale deal, which the government has denied. The Congress said, "Rahul Gandhi's often repeated allegations of corruption in the deal were proved correct after the French media report."

In a statement, the CPI(M) politburo said, "The current revelation in a French media portal that one million euros were paid to a "middleman" in the deal to buy 36 Rafale jets has once again raised the issue of kickbacks and other illegal payments in the Rafale deal. The report is based on an analysis of the Dassault company''s accounts of 2017."

"The dogged refusal by the (Narendra) Modi government to order a probe into the Rafale deal raises suspicion that it has something to hide in the matter. The CAG audit report could not obviously look into the issue of illegal payments," it said.

The CPI(M) politburo has demanded a high-level investigation into the cancellation of an earlier order and the issuance of a fresh order for 36 fighter jets.

According to Mediapart, its report was based on an investigation by the country's anti-corruption agency Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA), which found that after inking the deal, payment was made by Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale fighter jets.