Thread by @t_d_h_nair

1/ Nirmala Sitharaman’s argument citing the secrecy agreement to Congress’ allegation on the exorbitant price of Rafale36 was nothing, but another deliberate attempt to mislead the people of the country to hide the wrong doings of Modi in Rafale deal.

2/ Three days after we broke the story of inaccuracies in the #Rafale36 deal of Modi govt, on 17 November 2017, DM Nirmala Sitharsman in a press conference told reporters that the govt will disclose all the details. Where was the Secrecy agreement then?

3/ Before coming to that point, in the same press conference she said, “PM went to France, discussed there, came back and followed the due process”. That itself is misleading because PM announced ‘his’ decision to purchase 36 Rafale from France itself

4/ Modi neither consulted the then Defence minister Manohar Parrikar nor took the mandatory approval of Cabinet Committee on Security and did not have the approval of Finance Ministry before he announced his decision. Hence it was Modi’s own call.

For whom?

5/ In February this year, Nirmala Sitharaman changed her stand on the disclosure of the price of the Rafale citing a confidentiality agreement signed between India and France in 2008 and refused to disclose the financial details of the deal

6/ But, that was a cleaver move to hide the wrong doings in this deal because sources defence ministry who were privy to the details of the agreement pointed out that the agreement doesn’t seem to be binding and cited an example of UPA 2

7/ On 4 March 2013,on a question on the price details of purchase snd upgradation of Mirage 2000 fighter jets from the same manufacturer, the then UPA govt tabled a detailed answer in Parliament mentioning the cost of the aircraft, cost of upgradation and other related expenses

8/ When the Rafale deal was signed, Defence Ministry itself revealed the prices in details but the govt never confirmed it. It raises a serious question. Can govt hide the financial details of a multi billion dollar deal from the public citing a confidentiality agreement?

9/ If this govt says that they hold the responsibility to explain to the people on where and for what they spent the taxpayers’ money, this must be to hide something serious or they don’t believe in the democracy

10/ For Modi govt to cite national security, nobody is asking them to publicise the technical details of the aircraft and related equipments and add ons, but the financial details. Modi govt can not escape from doing so citing an secrecy agreement

11/ French President Didn’t have a problem if the govt disclose the details of the deal with opposition, but Modi govt has. If everything is neat and clean as they say why should Modi govt feel so jittery to disclose the financial details of the deal?

—End—