Months ahead of the crucial Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sounded the poll bugle by slamming the opposition parties, especially Congress party for their alleged role in dubious defence deals as he referred to middleman Christian Michel’s alleged attempts to scuttle Rafale deal to favour Eurofighter.
While addressing the second day of the BJP National Convention at Ramlila Maidan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on to attack Congress party and its president Rahul Gandhi for deliberately creating controversies to scuttle to defence deals and attempting to jeopardise the national security.
Referring to the extradition of fugitive Christian Michel to India, PM Modi said that the government has arrested the middleman for involving in dubious defence deals while earlier there were planes stationed for foreign middlemen to escape the country.
“Chowkidar rukne wala nahi hai….Abhi yeh shuruwat hui hai. Chowkidar ek ko bhi chhorne wala nahi hai (This guard is never going to stop. What has begun is just a tip of the iceberg. This guard will not spare a single wrongdoer on corruption – either in India and overseas),” the Prime Minister said addressing the BJP National Convention.
Interestingly, PM Modi dropped the ‘Michel’ bomb by saying that the middleman was not only involved in Helicopter deal (AgustaWestland scam) but also he was lobbying for a fighter aircraft deal, in an apparent reference to the reports of Christian Michel’s lobbying for Eurofighter against the French Rafale.
PM Modi also targetted Congress Party by saying that it was in a hurry to protect the middleman fearing that he may disclose details regarding his involvement in various defence deals. The fighter aircraft deal (Rafale) under UPA could not take place because this middleman (Christian Michel) was negotiating for another manufacturer, said PM Modi.
“Dheere dheere se parda khool raha hai (Slowly, everything is becoming clear),” Prime Minister said in reference to media reports that Michel was lobbying for Eurofighter over Rafale.
This is the second time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is bringing the reference of Christian Michel to target the Congress party. Earlier he had questioned whether the Rafale deal did not go through during the UPA era because of the dealings with ‘Michel mama’.
Recently, the Finance Minister had hinted that while the bidding process for the MMRCA was going on during the UPA government, a parallel backroom deal was going on with Eurofighter for probable bribes. Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon had entered the final round of bidding, among the initial 6 contenders, but eventually, Rafale was selected in 2012 on technical parameters.
