December 21, 2018: Senior Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee strongly batted for JPC probe into alleged corruption in Rafale Jet deal. Her visit to Agartala was viewed as Congress Party’s decision to scale up pressure on BJP and aware people about Party’s stand on Rafale.
Addressing a press conference today in Congress Bhawan at Agartala, Mukherjee threw barrage of queries and demanded reply or clarifications from Modi-led Government.
Saying that Congress respects the Supreme Court but it is not an investigating agency, Mukherjee argued, Congress party said months ago that the Supreme Court was not the forum to decide the issue of such a sensitive defence contract. The only forum is a JPC which can probe the entire corruption in the Rafale deal. “A JPC can find out and decide who are the accused people – and pave way to start process of law”, she said.
Referring to CAG report, Sharmistha Mukherjee asked, “The Supreme Court decision in Rafale is based on CAG report, but CAG had not given any report, neither it was placed in Parliament nor in Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Why was such a big lie with the Supreme Court”.
In her next query, Mukherjee referred to the agreement between Reliance and Dassault Aviation, said, “The top court’s decision is based on the fact that Reliance had an agreement with Dassault since 2012. However, Reliance Defence Limited was formed on March 28 2015.”
In her third question, Mukherjee alleged, the Apex Court’s decision is based on the statement of former French President Francois Hollande which mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government had favoured Reliance.
She also mentioned about comments and observations of other Ministries and highlighted points to strengthen her Party’s demand for a JPC probe into Rafale controversy.
