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The documents detailed the stance of Indian negotiators during the final lap of negotiation and in particular how they calculated the price of the aircraft. This gave clear advantage to Dassault Aviation (Rafale), Khera claimed, citing the Mediapart report.Congress wanted to know if the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recovered the “Secret Defence Ministry Documents” from the middlemen in the raid on March 26, 2019, including the benchmark price document of August 10, 2015, the record of discussions by the INT of Defence Ministry, the excel sheet containing the calculations made by Defence Ministry, and Eurofighter’s counter offer of 20% discount to the Indian government.Khera questioned if one of the documents that had been seized had been the note which had been sent to Dassault by Sushen Gupta dated June 24, 2014, where he had offered a meeting with the ‘Political High Command’.“This is nothing short of endangering National Security, sedition and a gross violation of Official’s Secrets Act. Why didn’t the ED pursue these evidences to investigate the scam? Why did the Modi government not take action against Dassault, the political executive or the Defence Ministry officers who leaked the documents?” pointed out Khera.“The ‘operation cover-up’ by the Modi government to bury the melting pot of corruption, kickbacks and collusion in Rafale deal is once again exposed,” he said at a press conference.The Congress leader also alleged that Prime Minister Modi abrogated the anti-corruption clauses – “no bribery, no gift, no influence, no commission, no middlemen”. These were mandatory clauses in defence contracts according to the defence procurement procedure and were part of the tender by the UPA for purchase of 126 fighter aircraft, he said.“Were the anti-corruption clauses deleted to escape responsibility from bribery and commission to be paid in the Rafale deal? Why was the deletion of anti-corruption clauses approved by the prime minister and the Modi government in September 2016, despite the defence ministry’s insistence upon including it in the inter-governmental agreement in July 2015,” asked Khera. He wanted to know if this was the real reason that CBI-ED refused to probe the corruption in Rafale deal since October 11, 2018, till date.On October 4, 2018, two former BJP Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and a senior lawyer submitted a complaint to director of the CBI citing massive corruption in the Rafale deal.
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Congress slams Modi Govt for covering up melting pot of ‘corruption, kickbacks and collusion’ in Rafale Deal
