The Congress on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of promoting an IAS officer who “compromised” while sending on leave an officer who had raised questions on the Rafale deal.

Claiming that Modi was getting sandwiched between international revelations and internal disclosures, Congress spokesperson Jaipal Reddy said: “The joint secretary and acquisition manager (air) in the defence ministry, Rajiv Verma, had objected to the deal already signed by the Prime Minister. Objections were on the basis of higher price and the 20 per cent discount offered by the other bidder, Euro Fighter.”

Reddy added: “So, what happens — Rajiv Verma had to go on leave. There comes a superior officer who overrules the joint secretary who went on leave and one lady officer, Smita Nagaraj, was posted as an officer senior to Verma. She was posted from the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office). After all this, the process of ratification of the agreement between the defence minister of India and the defence minister of France was delayed by more than one year.”

Another Congress spokesperson, Shaktisinh Gohil, tweeted: “The officer who raised questions has to go on leave and the officer who compromised was made UPSC member; the arrangement was done for post-retirement salary.”

Nagaraj, a Tamil Nadu-cadre officer, was shifted to the defence ministry from the department of personnel under the PMO. She was appointed UPSC member for six years in December 2017. She was a joint secretary in the defence ministry between 2009 and 2014.

The Indian Express has reported that a senior officer in the defence ministry who had been part of the contract negotiations committee had raised questions about the deal’s benchmark price and put his objections on record.

Reddy said: “It is for the government to contradict or confirm this report.”

He said he was not aware of any major defence commercial pact being ratified after the deal was signed. On international revelations, Reddy said: “French President Emmanuel Macron has not contradicted what (his predecessor) Francois Hollande said. He simply said: ‘I was not in charge at that time.’ In other words, he did not contradict the version of the former French President.” Hollande had said Reliance was proposed as the offset partner by India.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted the Indian Express report on the officer’s dissent note with a poetic jibe that referred to the alleged games being played by Modi and Ambani to snatch the offset contract from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. Rahul said the officer who objected was punished and pliable officers were rewarded. Later addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna, Rahul launched a scathing attack on Modi, repeatedly telling the audience that the “chowkidar (sentinel)” had turned into a “chor (thief)”.

Rahul said: “People have lost faith in Modi. Nobody listens to him anymore. Hollow words. I challenge him to speak about what Hollande said and the price of the fighter jets. People have realised he only lies. Farmers, youth, women… every section of society is a victim of his lies.”