By Bhupen Goswami (PNI)

Guwahati :   Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today lashed out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi for misleading the people on the Rafale deal, a multi-crore defence deal which was given clean chit by the Supreme Court. Hitting directly to Rahul Gandhi, Sonowal questioned why fighter jet deal which was needed for the armed forces direly, was delayed for seven long year? Why the UPA government could not go for government to government deal to procure latest and sophisticated fighter jets during its ten-year regime? “It was Narendra Modi, who had finalized the much –delayed Rafale deal with full degree of transparent and integrity. For the BJP, the country comes first while Gandhi family gets top priority for the Congress”, he said while addressing the press at the party headquarters here. Admitting that misinformation was still spreading by the Congress led anti BJP opposition parties even after Supreme Court’s verdict, Sonowal said the centaury old party has a long tradition of befooling people for dirty politics. “The countrymen are the witnessed that scams take front stage when Congress ruled the country.

Even UPA regime, the country witnessed so many scams but the then Prime Minister Monmohan Singh could not take any action”, he alleged. Demanding Rahul Gandhi to aphorize before the country for misleading the people on the Rafale deal, Sonowal said the BJP led NDA was ready to debate on the issue in the Parliament. “Why united opposition is not coming up for discussion or debating on the Rafale issue in the Parliament? It seems they are scared of the consequence”, he said. State’s Dy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma also sharply criticized the Congress president for misleading the people on Rafale deal. Two general secretaries- Rajib Bhattacharjee, Pratima Bhowmik and chief spokesman Dr. Ashok Sinha also remained present there. Meanwhile Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb has attributed the ‘outrageous lies’ being dished out by Congress on Rafale deal to an ‘international conspiracy’ hatched by foreign powers inimical to Indian interests. Interacting with the media in Shillong yesterday as part of BJP’s counter-campaign against Congress’s perfidious propaganda against the Rafale deal, Biplab Deb said that Congress was deeply worried that Narendra Modi and BJP had run a five-year government without any corruption and there was no major issue which could be turned against him . ‘Congress had been mired in massive corruption from top to bottom since the 1952 jeep scam and ended their regime in 2014 by clearing illegal and unauthorized loans to Bijkay Mallya , Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi ; but the BJP government has never been involved in any corruption ; it is their great worry ; besides, Rahul Gandhi himself and his mother are currently out on bail on corruption charges in National Herald scam and are fearing the worse in Agusta Westland chopper scam and income tax under-assessment case’ said Biplab.

He asserted that the Rafale deal had been initiated by the first NDA government and concluded by UPA-I and UPA-II governments including the price , technical specifications and offset clause including Reliance Defence as one of the offset partners, chosen by the Dassault company (maker of Rafale) . ‘But in 2012 everything was abandoned because Congress found no opportunity to have a middle man appointed from whom Congress party and its high-ups could earn money ; the then defence minister A.K.Anthony stated in a press conference that they could not purchase owing to lack of resources. ‘India is the highest defence materials purchaser in the world but during the past 71 years of our independence no defence deal was abandoned due to lack of resources ;

Anthony could not disclose the fact that the deal had been actually been abandoned because there was no middle man who could give Congress money’ said Biplab. He deplored that Congress had been dilly dallying with the vital deal at a time when Indian airforce squadrons had depleted to 32 as against the minimum requirement of 42 squadrons, describing this as ‘cruel joke’ with national defence. He added that the NDA government in centre has furnished all papers including sensitive inter-governmental documents to the supreme court and the ‘verdict is well known to all by now’ . ‘It is common sense that there can be no corruption in inter-governmental deal which is what Rafale deal is ; the offset matter is the concern of Dassault company (maker of Rafale) and already thirty companys have entered into agreements with Dassault company ; seventy more companys will sign similar agreements’ said Biplab. He added that the colossal falsehood of Congress on Rafale deal had fallen flat on the supreme court’s unequivocal judgment and people have seen through the evil design of Congress.