New Delhi: Sharpening his attack on the Narendra Modi government over the Rafale deal before the CAG report is tabled in Parliament, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Prime Minister of acting as a middleman of businessman Anil Ambani.
Citing an e-mail to claim that Ambani was aware of the MoU before India and France signed it, Gandhi said that it was a violation of the Official Secrets Act and Modi should be “put in jail as it amounts to treason".
“Ambani's knowledge of a defence deal under preparation, which even the then defence minister had said he was not aware of, is in violation of the Official Secrets Act," Gandhi alleged at a press conference.
“Only Modi could have told Ambani about the deal in advance. He is under oath. He compromised national security. He does what a spy does. He gave defence information to someone else," he alleged.
Ambani had met the French defence minister days before the signing of the deal during Modi's visit to France in 2015, Gandhi said, quoting from an e-mail written by an Airbus executive to a French official.
The Congress president also rejected the Comptroller and Auditor General report on the Rafale deal, and dubbed it "Chowkidar Auditor General" report.
The Indian Express had also reported on Tuesday that Ambani had met then French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s office in Paris and had a meeting with his top advisors, in the fourth week of March 2015, about a fortnight before PM Modi announced the Rafale deal.
This comes a day after the CAG submitted the audit report to the President and finance ministry. It is expected to be tabled in the Lok Sabha soon.
The Congress, claiming that CAG Rajiv Mehrishi has conflict of interest, says the document will "not be worth" the paper it is written on if the "overt acts of malfeasance" in the contract are ignored in it.
The opposition had turned up the heat on the Narendra Modi government ahead of elections after media reports said the Rafale deal between India and France involved "major and unprecedented" concessions on anti-corruption clauses from the Indian government.
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