Bengaluru: Former union minister M M Pallam Raju alleged that the Modi government has compromised national security by tweaking the Rafale aircraft procurement and by trying to ground HAL, a public sector undertaking.
Speaking to the reporters in Mysuru, Raju, former defence minister took on the NDA government over the deal. Terming it a copybook case of squandering national interests, causing loss to the public exchequer and promoting a culture of crony capitalism, he alleged that it is a scam of Rs.1.30 lac crores
“I don’t want to name any in this scam. But the prime minister is responsible for this,” he said.
“When the Indian airforce is facing a shortage of fighter aircrafts, the union government signed an unrealistic agreement. This is causing a major threat to the Indian airforce,” he alleged adding that if the contract was given to the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the country would have got its first fighter aircraft.
“The PM was caught lying in the parliament and Defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman is furnishing false details about the whole agreement. The details related to the agreement is on the public domain, but the central government is hiding facts,” he said.
On the Reliance Defense defamation notice against the national herald and the Congress party leaders, he pointed out that the company is going aggressively against who are questioning it.
“The company has no prior experience in the aircraft building and the maintenance. The state-run HAL has all the prerequisite experience. We are just asking questions. We want answers for all of them in the national interest,” he said.
