Union Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh on Wednesday slammed Congress and others for criticising the Rafale deal. He called them an “illiterate”.
He said, “Those who are making accusations are illiterate. They don’t have any knowledge about it. So it won’t be right to further comment on it.”
It is to be noted that PM Modi-led centre is facing fire over allegations that the Rafale deal has been done at a higher price than the previous one decided by the Congress-led government.
Earlier, in the day, the Supreme Court heard the pleas seeking a court-monitored probe into the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. During the hearing, it said that any discussion of pricing of the Rafale higher jets could only take place if the facts on the deal were allowed to come in the public domain.
“The decision we need to take is whether to bring the fact on pricing in public domain or not,” CJI Ranjan Gogoi said. The apex court, however, also sought the assistance of four Air Force officer on the issue of procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
India had inked a deal with France to procure 36 Rafale fighter aircraft in a fly-away condition in a bid to provide much-needed air power to the Indian Air Force equipment. The deal was estimated at Rs 58,000 crore. The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
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