Arun Jaitley slams Congress on Rafale deal, says falsehood has very short life

After the Supreme Court rejected all the petitions seeking a direction to the CBI to register an FIR for alleged irregularities in the procurement of "Supreme Court dismisses pleas seeking court-monitored probe into Rafale deal" '36 Rafale fighter jets' from France, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley slammed the Rahul Gandhi-led campaign for spreading falsehood on the deal. The finance minister said the Rafale jet prices, details of which were submitted through a sealed enveloped in the Supreme Court, were significantly lower than negotiated during the UPA government's tenure from 2007-2012.

The apex court on Friday said there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process in the multi-billion dollar Rafale deal. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said there was a necessity of fighter aircraft and the country couldn't remain without these jets.

Jaitley said Rahul Gandhi-led Opposition was spreading "falsehoods". "Falsehood has a very short life. In this case, it was a few months. Falsehood is bound to fall apart. It lowers the credibility of its creator, and the Rafale issue has each of these features," said Jaitley. He said those who manufactured these falsehoods were trying to put the national security to risk and have hurt India's largest security interests as a country.

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On the selection of billionaire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence as offset partner for French defence major Dassault Aviation, Jaitley said the decision on offset partner is taken by the seller (in this case Dassault Aviation), and that the government has no role to play in it.

Jaitley said the government claims a commercial advantage in this 36 aircraft Rafale deal, and that details about it are in the national interest and must be kept under wraps.

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The FM said the Rafale deal protected both security and national interests of India. "Security interest because it increases combat ability of India, commercial interest because the final price was significantly lower both for aircraft and weaponised aircraft than what was negotiated in 2007 and 2012," he said.

He added: "Presidents of parties in other countries have been impeached for lying in public place. So we want the Congress, which wanted discussion of the Rafale deal -- we had said let's start it at the earliest -- and those who invented this falsehood, must put it clearly in front of the Parliament," said the Finance Minister.

Edited by Manoj Sharma