The Narendra Modi government and the BJP stood lonely and cornered over the Rafale fighter jet deal in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday with ally Shiv Sena echoing Rahul Gandhi, and the Biju Janata Dal too joining the Opposition chorus.
The Sena, a partner in the ruling alliance, left the BJP benches red-faced when it asked why the Modi government was scared of ordering a joint parliamentary committee probe in the Rafale deal, which Rahul has demanded.
“We are an honest government, then why are we running away from a JPC probe? Why are we scared of a JPC probe if our government is good and not corrupt?” asked Sena MP Arvind Sawant. “Let there be a JPC probe and the truth will come out,” he added.
This prodding from the Sena member appeared to shock the BJP benches as the Opposition cheered.
Sawant was speaking after finance minister Arun Jaitley, who had firmly rejected the Opposition’s demand for a JPC probe. The Sena member didn’t stop there. He raised all the issues Rahul had flagged earlier in the House, seeking to question the government’s claim of a clean deal. Sawant asked why the offset contract was given to a company that “existed only on paper”.
The Sena MP sought to raise fingers at Prime Minister Modi too. He asked why the PM didn’t take the defence minister with him to France to finalise the Rafale deal while an industrialist whom he called “AA” — borrowing Rahul’s abbreviation for Anil Ambani — was present.
Sawant equated the Rafale deal with the Bofors gun deal, which turned into a scandal that continues to dog the Congress even three decades on. Bofors was a good gun but the deal was bad, he said. “Similarly, people are saying Rafale is a good plane but the deal is bad,” the Sena MP said.
Merely calling the Congress “chor” (thief) will not make the Modi government clean and so it should agree for a probe, he added.
The Sena leader said he had heard Jaitley but the finance minister had failed to give clear answers to the questions raised. The Rafale deal was signed in August 2015 but the clearance from the cabinet committee on security came a year later, in August 2016. “This has raised questions,” Sawant said.
Another big setback for the government came from the Biju Janata Dal, an Opposition party that has been taking an issue-based stand. Speaking for the first time on Rafale, Odisha’s ruling party did not demand a JPC probe but joined the Congress in raising questions over the deal.
“Questions of probity and questions of procedure do exit. Questions arise on pricing. It is well known that Qatar has bought the same planes at a much cheaper price,” BJD MP Kalikesh Singh Deo said, leaving the government cornered.
The BJD is known to charter an independent or middle-of-the-road line but rarely does it side with the Congress.
“This deal deserves transparency. People of India should know what went behind the deal,” the BJD member continued, raising several questions over lack of transparency. Kalikesh accused Jaitley of “cherry-picking” facts to claim a clean deal.
The BJD member said the government, by leaving out the transfer of technology clause in the Rafale deal, had caused a big loss to the nation and demanded a white paper on it.
“If the murky deals inked by the Congress scarred it, such deals (like Rafale) are bound to scar the NDA in the future,” he said.
With the Sena and the BJD choosing to oppose the government, the BJP appeared lonely in the House. The party had no one to defend the deal apart from itself.
The other NDA allies, such as Ram Vilas Paswan and the JDU MPs, remained mute spectators.
The AIADMK was in the Well of the House protesting against the construction of a dam on the Cauvery river.
As the House witnessed aggressive slogans of “chowkidar chor hai” by the Congress members, not all BJP MPs sprang to their feet to counter. Only a motley group of BJP members shouted back: “Maa, beta chor hain.”
