Congress accuses BJP of running away from JPC probe in Rafale deal

Hitting out at the Centre over the new media reports on the Rafale deal, Congress on Tuesday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is running away from Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the matter.

Congress General Secretary Organisation KC Venugopal said the government should institute a JPC probe into the deal.

"Why are you (BJP) running away from JPC inquiry on Rafale? We ask the government to put a mechanism to have an inquiry if they have an honest approach. BJP isn't ready as they're hiding a lot of things," Venugopal said.

Party spokesperson Pawan Khera toldthat the government has a majority in Lok Sabha and will JPC will also have more members from the BJP.

"Why are they are running away from JPC? They are accusing us of corruption and we ourselves are demanding that let us have a JPC on the issue," he said.

Reacting to the report on a French news portal, Khera said that Sushen Gupta, who received alleged payoffs, was appointed by the Dassault Aviation in 2000 when BJP-led government was in power.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra on Tuesday slammed Congress for alleged corruption in the Rafale deal in the period between 2007 to 2012 following fresh media reports.

Congress has said that the UPA government had negotiated the purchase of one Rafale fighter aircraft including transfer of technology for Rs 526.10 crore after an international tender for procuring 126 aircraft.

The BJP-led government decided to buy 36 Rafale aircraft off the shelf.

( With inputs from ANI )