August 10, 2026

Rafale Deal: Inquiry Is To Find Out Truth, Doesn't Prove Corruption

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-07-03 15:36:24

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

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Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party have a habit of misunderstanding things and jumping the gun. Before the 2019 general elections, Gandhi latched on to the Rafale deal and accused the NDA government and Narendra Modi of corruption, even coining the slogan "chowkidar chor hai". He even carried a model of the Rafale aircraft with him to his rallies to rub it in. As a political stance, that was fine, although it did not yield the desired dividend.  But when he misunderstood a Supreme Court order and claimed that the apex court had confirmed his allegations, he was hauled up for contempt and had to apologize to the court. He misunderstood the apex court order and jumped the gun by claiming what he thought the court had said.

Now, too, after French media reports have claimed that the government of that country is getting the Rafale deal investigated by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (the investigator has confirmed the fact), both the Congress and Rahul Gandhi have already assumed that the deal was corrupt. After Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra took swipes at the government using the hashtag #RafaleScam, party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said "Corruption in the Rafale deal has come out clearly now. The stand of the Congress party and Rahul Gandhi has been vindicated today after the French government ordered a probe." He added that "When the French government has accepted that there is corruption in the deal, should a JPC (joint parliamentary committee) probe be not held in the country where the corruption took place?"

But has the French government really accepted that there is corruption in the deal? Isn't an inquiry supposed to find out if there is any truth in the allegations? Then how does instigation of an inquiry prove that the deal was corrupt? If corruption was proved, there would be no need for an inquiry and the matter would have been dealt with by the police and the courts. That the French government is getting the deal investigated only means that it is trying to find out if the allegations are true or false. The Congress and its leaders have once again misunderstood the issue and are jumping the gun to make claims of being vindicated.