‘Praful Patel forced AI to buy 40 extra planes’
12 Sept 2014 5:32 AM IST
Rai said Patel put pressure on the Air India board during his tenure at the civil aviation ministry, which caused the flag carrier to purchase 68 planes instead of the 28 that were originally to be bought. These extra planes, said Rai, were bought at a cost of Rs 38,000 crore.
Rai also said the Air India board is supposed to keep the books in balance and purchase only the minimally required and buying so many planes at such a great debt could have never been possible in a private airline. In an interview with a news channel, the former CAG further alleged that officials from the aviation ministry had put pressure on him to drop Patel’s name from the report.
Responding to these allegations, Patel said that the purchase of the extra aircraft was a collective board decision and there was no question of anybody from the board putting pressure on the then CAG. Rai came out with a stinging criticism of former prime minister Manmohan Singh saying ‘integrity is not just financial but intellectual and professional too’ and claimed that Congress leaders had sought to apply pressure on him to keep the PM’s name out of audit reports.
Rai, whose loss estimates in 2G spectrum and coal block allocations pushed the then UPA government to a corner, was also critical of the coalition politics under Singh and allegedly suggested that he was more interested in remaining in power. ‘Integrity is not just financial; it is intellectual integrity; it is professional integrity. You have an oath of allegiance to the constitution and that is important,’ he said.
Rai said Manmohan Singh knew about the 2G scam, which according to a CAG report had cost the exchequer Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Talking to a news channel, Rai, busting Singh’s claim that he didn’t know about the scam, said Singh had knowingly disregarded the then commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath’s warning on the issue and allowed it to take place.
Rai said, ‘All matters of importance go to the Prime Minister. And ultimately the buck stops on the Prime Minister’s desk. In this particular case I found that minister of his own council who were writing to him again and again, saying that problems are, or there is talk about developments in the telecom sector, I quoted Mr Kamal Nath who is was the commerce industries minister, writing to the Prime Minister and expressing concerns about the development in the sector. I have written about the finance ministry expressing concerns, I have written about the law ministry expressing concerns.
Now, all these things went to the Prime Minister.’ Rai also said if Singh had wanted he could have stopped A Raja from going ahead with the 2G spectrum allocations. Rai also said that the former PM also knew about the scam in the coal block allocations that later came to be known as Coalgate, which cost Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the government exchequer.
Rai also said the Air India board is supposed to keep the books in balance and purchase only the minimally required and buying so many planes at such a great debt could have never been possible in a private airline. In an interview with a news channel, the former CAG further alleged that officials from the aviation ministry had put pressure on him to drop Patel’s name from the report.
Responding to these allegations, Patel said that the purchase of the extra aircraft was a collective board decision and there was no question of anybody from the board putting pressure on the then CAG. Rai came out with a stinging criticism of former prime minister Manmohan Singh saying ‘integrity is not just financial but intellectual and professional too’ and claimed that Congress leaders had sought to apply pressure on him to keep the PM’s name out of audit reports.
Rai, whose loss estimates in 2G spectrum and coal block allocations pushed the then UPA government to a corner, was also critical of the coalition politics under Singh and allegedly suggested that he was more interested in remaining in power. ‘Integrity is not just financial; it is intellectual integrity; it is professional integrity. You have an oath of allegiance to the constitution and that is important,’ he said.
Rai said Manmohan Singh knew about the 2G scam, which according to a CAG report had cost the exchequer Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Talking to a news channel, Rai, busting Singh’s claim that he didn’t know about the scam, said Singh had knowingly disregarded the then commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath’s warning on the issue and allowed it to take place.
Rai said, ‘All matters of importance go to the Prime Minister. And ultimately the buck stops on the Prime Minister’s desk. In this particular case I found that minister of his own council who were writing to him again and again, saying that problems are, or there is talk about developments in the telecom sector, I quoted Mr Kamal Nath who is was the commerce industries minister, writing to the Prime Minister and expressing concerns about the development in the sector. I have written about the finance ministry expressing concerns, I have written about the law ministry expressing concerns.
Now, all these things went to the Prime Minister.’ Rai also said if Singh had wanted he could have stopped A Raja from going ahead with the 2G spectrum allocations. Rai also said that the former PM also knew about the scam in the coal block allocations that later came to be known as Coalgate, which cost Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the government exchequer.
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