[Marxistindia] Make Rafale Deal Public

[news from the cpi(m)]

February 7, 2017


Press Statement


The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the
following statement:

Make Rafale deal Public

The statement by the Defence minister in Parliament with regard to the
agreement for the Rafale fighter planes is completely unacceptable.

Ever since the deal was renegotiated there have been several reports that
allege that the price being paid for the planes in question is much higher
than what had been decided in the earlier agreement.

The plea taken by the Defence Minister that the details of the
inter-governmental agreement is “classified information” is untenable. A
defence deal involving multi-billion dollars cannot be kept confidential.
Why is it that the government is hiding this information from the
sovereign authority of the country, the parliament?

Parliament being denied information about a deal which is not only being
criticised as having created a huge and unjustified burden on the national
exchequer but which also has grave implications for both the defence
sector and public sector units involved in defence production cannot be
accepted. The government in the interests of transparency and probity must
reveal all details connected with this agreement to parliament and the
people.





(Hari Singh Kang)
For Central Committee Office