Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dismissed the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report on the Rafale deal as “not even worth the piece of paper it is written on” as it does not reflect on critical information about the negotiations and pricing details.
Addressing a media conference, Rahul said: “Why is this document (dissent note submitted by three members of the Indian negotiating team) not there in the CAG report? You know why these officials put their view in black and white? Because they know corruption has happened and they don’t want to go to jail after the investigation.”
Asserting that the “new Rafale deal was a con and a robbery”, the Congress chief said: “The dissent note demolishes the two pillars on which the government arguments rest — that the price is cheaper and the delivery schedule is faster. It clearly says the price (in the NDA deal) was 55.6 per cent higher (than the benchmark price) and the delivery schedule was better in the UPA deal. It is clear the only reason why the deal was changed is that Rs 30,000 crore had to be given to Anil Ambani.”
