Hyderabad: Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily kicked off a controversy by alleging that Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa was “lying” on the Rafale deal by calling it a game-changer and appreciating the Supreme Court verdict. The IAF chief had made the comments on Wednesday.
Mr Moily said that the IAF chief along with the head of Dassault Aviat-ion, manufacturers of the fighter aircraft, had visited HAL’s Bengaluru headquarters a day before the Paris agreement and found it a “competent body with necessary expertise”.
“To say that the SC judgment is fine, I think that the IAF chief is not fine. He is not fine, (he is) lying. He is suppressing the truth,” Mr Moily told mediapersons at Gandhi Bhavan here.
Speaking in Rajasthan on Wednesday, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa had called the Rafale verdict a “game changer” and said the SC had given a fine judgment on petitions against the deal with France. He had cautioned against politicisation of defence purchases, suggesting that this had earlier led to the del-ay in the Army acquiring the Bofors gun.
Responding to the BJP’s demand that Congress president Rahul Gandhi apologise for levelling corruption allegations against the Prime Minister following the SC verdict, Mr Moily said: “Mr Rahul Gandhi should be appreciated for the bold stand taken on the scam of the century and need not tender any apology. The apology has to be given by Narendra Modi for having sacrificed the security of the nation.
