Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Sep 18: Members of District Congress Committee on Tuesday, September 18, staged a mass protest condemned the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the Rafale deal.
A rally which commenced from Tiger circle Manipal- Syndicate circle and end up at DC’s office Rajathadri Manipal was carried out by the members.
Addressing the protestors, former minister Vinay Kumar Sorake said, “The Rafale fighter jet deal is a big scam of the NDA government. The purchasing plan was done during the period of UPA government while Manmohan Singh was the prime Minister and A K Antony was the defence minister. It was Rs 526 crore in 2007. But after NDA government came into power, the amount of the deal got doubled in 2015. The UPA government approved the demand in 2007 and initiated the bidding. Many companies responded and finally Dassault won the contract in 2012 to provide 126 Rafale fighter jet at US$ 10.2 billion, with 18 jets to be provided ready-to-fly and rest 108 to be made in India by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) via technology transfer. Now Modi holds the hand of capitalist Anil Ambani, who has no knowledge about fighter jets. When Modi visited France, the defence minister was not present with him. Due to this, the country has lost Rs 41,000 crore. A JPC probe should be conducted into the Rafale scam.
“None of the promises of PM Modi are fulfilled. The value of rupee is decreasing in the global market. The price of LPG has increased up to Rs 850. The public should give a good reply for all these things to the central government. The government did not control inflation, and has put pressure on common people.
“There is an increase of 16% in rape cases in the country after Modi became the prime minister. He had promised people about cleaning the Ganga, but the percentage of contamination of the river is increasing every day.
“The central government made use of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s death for election. The Modi led government is suppressing the minority, Dalit and poor families. There is no life for poor,” he said.
Karkala block former president Gopal Bhandary said, “Modi is travelling to foreign countries without considering the problems of his own country. Modi only commands BJP workers and they follow it. India is a diverse country. BJP creates discrimination by bringing a divide among religions. Moreover, Modi does not know how to run the government.”
Mamatha Gatti, secretary KPCC said, “Modi created a concept of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’. But, everything is going vain and nothing has come become reality. As we are in the opposition party, we should not stop ourselves from criticizing the mistakes of the ruling government.”
MLC K K Pratapchandra Shetty, Rakesh Malli, president INTUC, M A Gafoor, secretary, KPCC, Janardhan Thonse, president district Congress, Narasimha Murthy, president, Urban Development Authority, Deviprasad Shetty, Prakhyath Shetty, G A Bhava, Amrith Shenoy, Gopal Poojary and Veronica Cornolio, KPCC secretary and others were present.