The BJP today rubbished the allegation of any wrong doing in Rafale aquisition. Intead the party claimed that these were efforts by UPA “divert attention” from AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.
Yesterday when Randeep Surjewala alleged “There is complete non-transparency, flagrant violation of mandatory provision of Defence Procurement Procedure, sacrificing national interest on transfer of technology to PSU HAL”, he did so armed with all facts and figures available in public domain. BJP instead of providing any new information choose to deflect attention to an unrelated issue.
More importantly allegations of Surjawala is backed by information in public domain both in India and France. While price negotiations of high tech machinery like a fighter aircraft can be very tricky and on most part above top secret, the discrepancies as pointed out by the Congress spokesperson as too big to be looked over.
Ideally PM should brief Standing Standing Committee on Defence and take opposition in confidence. Atal Bihari had established long ago that leaders of NDA too can work for nation with consensus. Only transparency of the highest order can help fill the void between the knowledge in Public domain and the National Security requirements
