Air Marshal SBP Sinha, who headed Rafale deal, exposes Rahul Gandhi

In a new revelation about the Rafale fighter jet deal, Air Marshal SBP Sinha, who headed the Rafale jet deal negotiations from the Indian side, has raised concern about the selective use of Ministry of Defence note by the Congress.

He said only parts of the note was being used by people with “vested interest” to indicate that the government resorted to corrupt practices while finalising the deal with France.

In a report, Air Marshal Sinha was quoted saying that some notes are being “selectively picked up” to prove a point but the fact is none of them are “linked to Indian negotiating team”. He stressed that the Indian negotiating team had forwarded its final report signed by all seven members without dissent.

Referring to the ‘anti corruption clause’, the said that so far India has had three ‘government to government’ contracts — the first two with America and Russia, and the Rafale jet deal with France being the third — but there was no such clause in any of the three contracts.

On Friday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had termed as “incomplete” and “distorted” the news item published by a newspaper about “parallel negotiations” by the PMO in the deal. She said that it was likely that some “vested interests” were deliberately creating “doubts” in the minds of people because of some “corporate warfare”.

The Defence Minister had clarified the government position earlier. Slamming Congress president Rahul Gandhi for constantly raising questions over the Rafale deal, Sitharaman had said that Rahul has no “moral authority” to talk about corruption when he, along with his mother Sonia Gandhi and brother-in-law Robert Vadra, are on bail themselves.

The Defence Minister has said that it is the duty of the Prime Minister to monitor the progress in any deal or project, and that if some enquiries were made by PMO regarding the deal, it cannot be termed as “interference”.