PM's defence on pricing of Rafale deal demolished:Rahul

Agencies
February 13, 2019

New Delhi, Feb 13: Stepping up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale issue, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cited a media report to claim that the PM's argument of better pricing and faster delivery of the jets to defend the deal has been "demolished".

His attack came after a report in The Hindu which claimed that the Rafale deal was not on"better terms" than the UPA-era offer.

"The PM defended his personal RAFALE bypass deal on 2 counts: 1. Better Price 2. Faster Delivery. Both have been demolished by the revelations in the Hindu today," he tweeted.

The government has in the past rejected all such allegations and claims against the deal.

Three senior Defence Ministry officials who were the domain experts on the seven-member Indian Negotiating Team (INT) came to a "well-substantiated and clear conclusion" that the Narendra Modi government's new Rafale deal for 36 flyaway aircraft was not on "better terms" than the offer made by Dassault Aviation during the procurement process for 126 aircraft under the United Progressive Alliance government, the report in the English daily said.

Citing the report, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the "theft has been caught".

Surjewala highlighted four points citing the report -- price of 36 Rafale jets was 55 per cent higher than the UPA-era offer, loss incurred by not taking 25 per cent discount for Rafale as offered by Eurofighter, bank and sovereign guarantee waived, and no aircraft for 10 years with escalation cost to be paid.

The Congress' attack came a day after, Gandhi accused the prime minister of "treason" and violating the Official Secrets Act by acting as Anil Ambani's "middleman" in the Rafale jet contract, citing an email to claim the businessman was aware of the deal days before India and France finalised it.

The BJP, however, had rejected the charge, saying the email purportedly by an Airbus executive referred to a helicopter deal and not Rafale.

Reliance Defence, in a statement, also refuted Gandhi's allegation saying the "proposed MoU" mentioned in the email referred to its cooperation with Airbus Helicopter.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The coronavirus pandemic will leave behind a global recession with small businesses, self-employed and daily wagers taking the worst hit, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said on thursday.

"The virus will eventually be conquered, but it will have left behind a global recession. The costs of that are incalculably high at this time. The most fearsome toll will be on small businesses, the self-employed & those whose lives depend on meagre daily wages," Mahindra said in a tweet.

Apart from the toll on lives, the legacy of Covid-19 may well be deaths due to stress, loss of livelihoods, a rise in homelessness and in extreme situations, civil unrest, he added.

"The only global experience that has lessons for us in the current situation is the last world war. In the aftermath of WW2, the US came up with the Marshall plan to revive Europe, effectively a giant fiscal pump-priming," Mahindra said.

In the US, the government dramatically dismantled regulations and opened up the economy to trade and these actions led to a boom-cycle that stretched to 1975, he added.

"This time, there will be no victors, only the vanquished. So every country will have to create its own post ‘virus war” marshall plan & take care of those in society who are hit the hardest. Perhaps we too can build the foundations of a sustained global growth cycle," Mahindra said.

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News Network
February 4,2020

New Delhi, Feb 4: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused Arvind Kejriwal of having a "partnership" with Pakistan and appealed to the people in Delhi to not vote for the AAP chief as it will make Pakistan happy.

Ramping up his attack on the Shaheen Bagh protest, Adityanath said that the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is merely an excuse for people to vent their anger against the scrapping of Article 370.

"You must have seen their partnership on 370. Arvind Kejriwal used to speak in the same voice as Imran Khan on Article 370. You must have heard it.

"Now when elections are taking place in Delhi, who is speaking in favour of Arvind Kejriwal? It is the ministers of Pakistan. They are aware that Kejriwal is feeding 'biryani to protesters at Shaheen Bagh'," he said, referring to Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry's tweet asking Indians to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adityanath addressed three rallies on Monday in the national capital ahead of assembly elections.

"Will Pakistan decide who Indians should vote for. If voting for Kejriwal will make Pakistan happy, should it be done," he asked at a rally in Mehrauli.

Adityanath said his Delhi counterpart Kejriwal has become a "toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements".

Addressing a rally in Vikaspuri in west Delhi, he said that Kejriwal is not bothered about key issues such as providing clean drinking water but is concerned about Shaheen Bagh, the anti-citizenship amendment act protest site.

At another rally in Uttam Nagar in west Delhi, Adityanath said Kejriwal has played with the emotions of the people of Delhi for the last five years.

"He obstructed the development of Delhi. And knowingly and unknowingly, he became a toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements," Adityanath said.

The protest at Shaheen Bagh, he said, has disrupted traffic across the capital.

"A guest with an appointment to meet him at 9.30 am could only reach at 11. He told me he had left as early as 7 am but got stuck because of the traffic in Shaheen Bagh," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also slammed Kejriwal for "sympathising" with elements who he said gave anti-India slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

New Delhi, Feb 25: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday called a meeting to discuss the prevailing situation in the national capital after violence in Northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law left four people dead.

Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and representatives of different political parties were invited for the meeting.

Follow live updates of clashes among CAA protesters in Delhi here

The home minister has convened a meeting to discuss the current situation in Delhi, a Home Ministry official said.

The move came after the home minister reviewed the law and order situation in the national capital on Monday night as violence rocked Northeast Delhi.

Frenzied protesters torched houses, shops, vehicles and a petrol pump, besides hurling stones.

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