Gundurao questions PM Modi on Rafale deal

Bengaluru: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee working president Dinesh Gundurao criticized the BJP led Central government over the Rafale fighter aircraft deal controversy saying its injustice to leave out HAL in Bengaluru.

Addressing the press here Gundurao questioned “Why was the UPA’s agreement scrapped arbitrarily?”

He said that previously the deal was finalized by the previous Congress-led UPA entailed purchase of 18 Rafales from the French aviation company Dassault and manufacture of 108 aircrafts at HAL.

“Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman have done injustice to the state. This project would have created a lot of jobs.”

Gundurao also accused BJP for favoring Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence by announcing the purchase of 36 Rafales by cancelling the previous agreement UPA had inked. “Does that mean that HAL is inferior compared with Ambani’s company, which has no experience in the aviation sector?” he asked.

In 2015, Modi announced the purchase of 36 Rafales during his visit to France even as a previous deal for 126 aircraft was pending.