Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry, who had expressed angst over Rahul Gandhi for not winning the 2019 general elections, today again took a cue from Congress and raked up the Rafale bogey.
What about Independent investigation into Rafael deal? After all French and Indian people have right to know the facts .. NO? https://t.co/ajIDC37gTc
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) August 23, 2019
Misspelling the fighter jet as ‘Rafael’, Pakistan’s minister of science and technology taunted PM Modi and French President Macron’s meeting in France where the latter said that Kashmir remains a bilateral issue and no third party should interfere. The French President even took a strong stand against terrorism.
Chaudhry was referring to the Rafale controversy Congress had raked up prior to the elections and claimed that there was widespread corruption in the Rafale deal, despite the fact that the then Congress President couldn’t even stick to one consistent figure of extent of corruption. Amusingly, following the conclusion of elections and Congress’ monumental loss, the ‘Rafale scam’ seems to have been long forgotten.
The Indian government has signed a deal with the French government for the purchase of 36 Rafale jets, after the attempt to buy 126 fighter jets had failed. Rafale had emerged as the winner in 2012 in that bid, but a deal could not be signed due to various issues. Therefore, after coming to power, the Modi government had scrapped that deal and signed a new deal to buy 36 jets directly from France to immediately replenish the fast depleting fleet of IAF. But opposition parties led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and activists are trying hard to derail the deal by making numerous baseless allegations and filling PILs in court against the deal.
In case Chaudhry missed out, the first Rafale jet is expected to be delivered next month.
