By M M Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Supporting the Congress party’s demand, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday asked the Government of India to disclose Rafale fighter planes deal details. The CPI (M) also said the statement by the Defence minister in Parliament with regard to Rafale deal is “completely unacceptable”.
In a statement, the CPI (M) Polit Bureau said that ever since the deal was renegotiated there have been several reports that allege that the price being paid for the planes in question is much higher than what had been decided in the earlier agreement.
It said the plea was taken by the Defence Minister that the details of the inter-governmental agreement are “classified information” is untenable. “A defence deal involving multi-billion dollars cannot be kept confidential. Why is it that the government is hiding this information from the sovereign authority of the country, the parliament?”
The party said the parliament is being kept in the dark about the deal.
“Parliament being denied information about a deal which is not only being criticised as having created a huge and unjustified burden on the national exchequer but which also has grave implications for both the defence sector and public sector units involved in defence production cannot be accepted.”
The ministry of defence said in a statement that the demand that Government discloses details and value of the contract for the Rafale aircraft contracted in 2016 are unrealistic. The approximate acquisition cost…has already been provided to the Parliament.”
The ministry further said in the statement, “Provision of exact item-wise cost and other info will reveal, inter alia, details regarding various customisations and weapons systems specially designed to augment effectiveness and lethality of assets, impact our military preparedness and compromise our national security,” said the statement.
However, supporting the demand of opposition parties, CPI (M) said the government in the interests of transparency and probity must reveal all details connected with this agreement to parliament and the people.
