Kharge calls Rafale deal biggest scam of post-independent India

Congress veteran and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday termed Rafale deal as the biggest scam of post-independent India, while accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre of alleged tampering in the procurement procedure for fighter jets.

Speaking to ANI, the 76-year-old Congress leader said: "This is the biggest scam the country has witnessed after independence. All the money has gone straight into the pocket of one industrialist." He said that he would raise the matter in the upcoming Winter Session of the Parliament and would also try to unite other parties on the issue of Rafale deal.

Congress party leader Kapil Sibal had also taken on the Centre on Wednesday over Rafale fighter jet deal, saying that the deal was not a government-to-government pact with France, and claimed that there was no such procedure in the country. "The French government has never done a government-to-government contract on defense and such a deal has only been done in the United States under the Foreign Military Sales route," he had said.

The Congress has mounted a severe attack on the Centre in the wake of a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi began hearing into a bunch of petitions, seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged irregularities in the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation. The Centre has refused to share the price details of the purchased jets due to "safety and security concerns.