Rafale row: Centre misled court on CAG report, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the Centre has misled the apex court in the Rafale deal case.

Reading out from the Supreme Court verdict, Gandhi said that while the Centre had said that a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the deal had been placed before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), its chairman Mallikarjun Kharge, a Congress leader, had no knowledge of it.

"The Centre has said the pricing details of the Rafale airplane have been written in the CAG report which has been shared with PAC. This is the basis of the judgment. Now Khargeji, the chairperson of the PAC Committee in Parliament, is sitting in front of me and you can ask him directly: Did the CAG report land in front of the PAC? Did it come in Parliament, has he seen the CAG report in his life? You can ask him," Gandhi said.

Kharge, who is also the leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, said that PAC had not been made privy to any report. Earlier in the day, PAC member Rajeev Gowda also said he had no inkling of any such report.

"We want to ask a few questions of the government. Why was an aircraft worth Rs 526 crore purchased for Rs 16,000 crore? Why was the contract snatched from HAL and given to Anil Ambani? HAL, Bangalore has land, it makes aircraft, so then, why was the contract taken away from it? There is scarcity of employment opportunities in India, but you have asked the French government to make the aircraft in France," Gandhi said.

Gandhi had also said that the Rafale deal, corruption and unemployment will be some of the key issues the Congress will raise in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections next year.