 We would like to begin with paying our deepest condolences to the Karnayana DJ, who passed away yesterday. We are all very sad at this development. We even considered postponing this press conference. But then we thought that it will have to be postponed for many days considering the various programs that we have. So we decided to go ahead with it. I hope you would not mind that we are holding this press conference on this day at this time. After having said this, I would like to hand over the mic to my colleague, who is having knowledge here, who will talk about the subject that we have chosen for this afternoon press conference. The papers are being distributed to you. We will have a look at it very soon. After he has spoken, then if there is anything that Hassan Boshanti or I would like to add, we will talk about them very briefly and then we will be open to a question from yourself. I would like to take the mic. You know the several features in the last few days, the several stories which have appeared, several statements which have been made by government, led us, especially the officials, and the shifting statements of the government on the refered deed go to the three of us to start looking at the record and meeting persons who are knowledgeable, including persons from the defence forces, to understand what exactly is happening. And after this examination, we are convinced that this is an enormous scandal which jeopardises national security. And hence we feel that the government must reveal the facts, especially the facts in relation to what the whole deal is going to cost the public. Secondly, we hope that the opposition parties will relentlessly pursue this matter the way the BJP has pursued both of us at that time, with the same tenacity the opposition parties must pursue the matter. Third, that I would hope that all of us in the media will just not leave this matter at all because it concerns national security, it concerns the lines of our airmen and so on. And finally that we in the media must be aware of plants, of plants by government, by plants by interested parties. It's very necessary to do that. I'll just take a few minutes to take you through the statement which is being distributed at all these annexures which have been put together by Prashant and his colleagues very meticulously. As you know, the original deal was based on a thorough study by the air force that they would require six to seven squadrons of 126 planes and they had four interrelated objectives. The first was that the complete requirements of the air force must be met. Second, that a part of the plane should be available at the earliest possible. Third, that we must acquire state-of-the-art technology so that we can produce those kind of fighter aircraft ourselves and that we want organization in the country which has had 50 years of experience in building aircraft, in the Nusran aircraft limited, the public sector company should further strengthen its capabilities so that we become self-reliant in producing aircraft of this order. This was the objective and for this negotiations went on for a long time. Detailed negotiations with all sorts of people. First there were six vendors, then they were waited down to two vendors and it turned out that the referral was at one. And therefore they settled on referral. Now these negotiations were almost complete and this is evident from various statements which were made by the foreign secretary for instance Jay Shankar who was as you know in the court team of Mr. Modi on the 8th of April 2015. Just two days before the prime minister visited France, he told the press people in the briefing giving the complete impression that yes these negotiations are far advanced, H.A. and all are in the discussions and the prime minister and president of France will not be getting into the details because they focus only on the big picture even in relation to security matters. This was two days before that. Similarly statements by the CEO of Dassaulde, Eric Terpierre. On 25th March 2015. Two weeks before that, that is on 25th March 2015, he also said that the negotiations are complete and we are very happy with H.A. and so on. Of these negotiations then suddenly it is announced in Paris that India will buy these 36 Yelka but even in that, please remember and these will be bought in a what was called a ready to fly condition. There was no mention now of the 108 planes which were to be made in India. There was no mention of H.A. and there was no mention of transfer of technology. It was a completely new deal. Now if it is a new deal, then you have to have new tenders. Just like as Prashant just reminds me, it has not been disclosed at all as to who prompted this deal. The Air Force has not said that our requirements are not 126 planes but only 36 planes. The Ministry of Defense has not said. How did Ilhan come today? Like demonetization. This is a bad name. But even in that joint statement of our Prime Minister and the President of France, I want to just read out two sentences to you in which it says that the planes will be obtained by India and are quoting on terms that would be better than conveyed by the assault aviation as part of a separate process which is underway on better terms. Please remember that. Second, that the aircraft and associated systems and weapons should be delivered on the same configuration as had been tested and approved by the Indian Air Force. This is also very important because as you know, the entire rationalization today is, you know, there are some new India-specific add-ons. Actually there is nothing. Everything is in the R and P in the beginning. It is what was being negotiated. It is what had been settled. And now certainly we are being told, no, no, there is a helmet. No, no, there are new missiles. But that's not the case. Even in the joint statement they said it will be the aircraft and associated systems and weapons would be delivered on the same configuration as had been tested and approved by the Indian Air Force. Now, the only justification which was given by the Indian Air Force is that it will be delivered in two years. But in fact, as you know now we are being told that no, the first batch will come only four and a half years after the statement. And the complete set of 36 will come only by May 2022. Now, if the government had stuck to the original request for proposals, then by now not only would you have got 18 aircraft, which was to come in a fly by ready-to-fly condition, but they were bound to have begun production within three years. So even production within India would have begun. But all of that is forgotten. Now, it turns out that there is no evidence that there was any consultation. Of course, the Air Force and all, as Prasanthi reminds us, but it is on record that the Cabinet Committee on Security met on this matter only one year subsequent to the announcement of the meeting. Second day, if you see Mr. Parikar's statements at that time, the defence minister, he is always saying, not mighty, it's the decision of the Prime Minister. It is the result of the discussions between the Prime Minister and the President of France. He is always distancing himself from those. And third, of course, as I told you, the Foreign Secretary two days before his statement is referring to negotiations that are going on for the 126 planes, which also shows that the Prime Minister 4 to 14 did not know what was actually happening. Next point is that HAL was kicked out completely. This happened even though in March 2016, a worst-case agreement happened, and it worked out between Dessauld and HAL, in which HAL was to do 70% of the work on the 108 planes which were going to be produced in India. And the previous statement which is included in the statement which has been given to you shows that they were completely comfortable with the competence of HAL. So they were excluded, and my good friend Anil Ammani's company, which has absolutely no experience in producing anything in aerospace or in defence equipment, and which had been registered just 10 days before the deal was announced. They were given the lion's share. 30,000 crores worth of offsets were to be now given, of which 21,000 crores were to come to a company which had absolutely no experience at all, and which in fact at that time had a debt of 8,000 crores, that single company. Forget the debt of my friend Anil's company, a group company. More than 1 lakh crores. The debt is over 1 lakh crores. Prashant says that the debt of the group as a whole is more than 1 lakh crores. But even if you focus only on that one single narrow company, Reliance Defence, its debt already was 8,000 crores. And it's a loss. The cumulative loss at that time was 1,300 crores. And it had no experience. So good, the souls have gone in for such a partnership without a natural link from the authorities. How did you remember them? The offset guidelines of the government say very clearly, if you turn to the offset guidelines which we have annexed, they say very clearly that all offset contracts would have to be approved by the government regardless of their value. If you look at that offset agreement, the offset guidelines which are at page 22, turn to page 22 of this press release, because now the government is saying that we have nothing to do with the selection of Reliance. That this was a decision taken by Dassault. That the government has nothing to do with the selection of Reliance as an offset partner for Dassault. This is what is being said. Now if you see these offset guidelines which start at page 22 and go to page 24, go to page 24 at the bottom it says, these defence offset guidelines shall come into effect from 1st April 2016. And at page 22, approval authority, Parra 8.6 it says, all offset proposals will be processed by the acquisition manager and approved by the Raksha Mantri regardless of their value. So this is a complete cock and bull story which is now being spun by the government. So the question is whether the acquisition officer processed this and did the Raksha Mantri sign it? If they did not, they violated the guidelines. If they did, then how does the government say that they have nothing to do with the private path? Just not the Reliance one of you. And then I just want to go back to the point of that experience, because actually the group's record is that they have great difficulty in executing big projects. Whether you take the Delhi Metro to a line going to the airport or this line in Bombay, series of such projects, power projects or even in the defence field, they bought that old Vikramar. Now there they had to produce five these offshore petrol vehicles and they are not able to do that. So couldn't a foreign enterprise of this all experience have just alighted upon a company of this record? It was only a way to benefit somebody at the cost of the public extractor, at the cost of defence preparedness and in violation of the guidelines and to knock out the one company which has had experience in all this. So that's the second point. The third point might just end with that. That is the whole question of the price. Ok, that is the only thing I can say is that there is a secrecy agreement there. But actually speaking, the secrecy clause in the agreement relates only to the technical specifications and operational capabilities of the plane. It does not deal with price. And in an interview to India today, President Macron himself said, I think in March, he himself said that as far as the price and all is concerned, this is the entirety for the government of India to determine how much they wanted to disclose. So secrecy is that second part. So not only that, the fools have forgotten that their own Minister of State for Defence answered a parliamentary question on this very matter in the looks of it and gave the price. And the price he said was 670 crores per plane. I'll tell you why we are not reminding you of that price now. 670 crores per plane and that will include everything. And he listed all those things in that answer to parliament. He said this will include requisite equipment, services and weapons, which you will be including beside Helmets. Second, Mr. Parikar himself had disclosed it. Parikar had said that 126 planes would have cost 90,000 crores. So that came to 715 crores per plane. straight pier had said yes, we continue. CEO of just all, ESL means completely go by the RFP and what we have submitted at that time regarding the price. The RFP itself has said that the price will include aircraft, weapons and missiles, warranty for two years, license for manufacture in India, transfer of technology and initial training. All that and that he said yes, we have never buy from that at all. So what has happened that the government suddenly says that no, the price is confidential. Why? Because by mistake or design that's all actually revealed the price and that comes not to 670 crores per plane, but to 1660 crores per plane. Both reliance and that's all revealed. Yes, actually Krishna was in mind's way correctly. Both reliance and that's all revealed the price. So that means the plane is now 1000 crores more per plane than was revealed by the government itself just a year and a half ago. Hence my friends I conclude the next result of all this is that there has been a gross misuse of office by which the original project for the acquisition of 126 fighter aircraft has been sabotaged. Therefore national security has been jeopardized and enormous additional burden has been placed on the national extractor that the one organization in the country which had this expertise and to which whose expertise we were to build by transfer of technology and actual production of the license so that we can make these fighter aircraft ourselves that have been pushed out a private party which has had absolutely no experience in manufacturing aerospace and defense equipment has been handed an enormous financial benefit. This entire transaction and I'm quoting my friend Prashant in this is a six book case of criminal misconduct of misuse of public office and of enriching parties at the expense of the national interest and national security and the public extractor and therefore I feel is that we in the media must not let this go at all. I can tell you as a person who handled the matter in regard to Bofors that Bofors was absolutely nothing compared to this. There was never a sudden change like this in which you suddenly gave up the entire project. You did a new project without any new tendering and the clue at that time was the shifting statements and lies of the document and that's exactly the clue today. So that's the point that we wanted to stress and all the supporting documents are in annexure which have been put to the statement. The statement sets this out also and Prashant will really, they know much more about these things than I do. All those who have not got copies of the printed press release and the documents should give their email, we will immediately email everything the whole PDF file with the annexures and the documents. So Arun Ji has pointed out what this scam is all about. I call it a scam because in my view it is definitely the biggest defense scam that this country has seen so far. I have been following defense scams for a long time. Arun Ji has been following it for an even longer time and we can say with great deal of confidence that this is clearly the biggest scam involving firstly a loss of at least 35,000 crores to the public sector. Secondly, a compromise of our national security by reducing the aircrafts which the Air Force had asked for which the Air Force needed from 126 to 36 without, and I say this with authority, without a single person in the Air Force or a single person in the defense ministry saying that this requirement of 126 can be scaled down to 36, not one person. I say this with authority, the present Air Chief who happened to be in Paris on that day when this deal was signed, he told people that I know that I was not aware of this reduction from 126 to 36. From 126 to 36 he said he was not aware of this. Parankar said that he was not aware of this. Nobody in the Air Force, nobody in the defense ministry asked for this reduction. Mr. Modi on his own unilaterally takes this decision, signs a new contract, makes everybody believe that this 36 would be delivered on the same weapons platform, on the same technical specifications at better prices, but what we find now according to the present releases of both Dassault as well as Reliance that the price has in fact been increased by at least 1,000 crores per aircraft, more than doubled clearly. And the reason why they have been caught and the reason why they are hiding on secrecy is because they inadvertently stated on 18th, if you see page 27 of the press release in November 2016, this fact is not brought out sufficiently that today the government says that price can't be revealed under the secrecy agreement. On November 2016 this very government stated formally in parliament that intergovernmental agreement with the government of France, the French Republic has been signed on 23rd, 23rd September 2016 for the purchase of the strategic repair aircraft along with requisite equipment, services and weapons. The cost of the repair aircraft is approximately 670 crores and all the aircraft will be delivered by April 2022. After having said this formally in parliament, does it lie in the mouth of the government to say today that no price can't be revealed because it is covered by a secrecy agreement? And the reason why they have been caught is because reliance and death on, if you see both their press releases which are there, both of them said the first press release of reliance is on page 30. In the middle of page 30 they say on 23rd September, India and France signed a purchase agreement for supply of strategic repair fighter jets at a value of 7.87 billion or about 60,000 crores. So this is the reliance statement. Thereafter you have the record statement which starts at page 32 where on the top they say order intake in 2016, Euro 9.558 billion. This is 36 Rafale and some Falcon. At page 34 they say that the Falcon order is 1.419 million which makes the Rafale order to be 8.139 billion. So even more than what reliance has stated. So Rafale is saying that the worth of the order of 36 Rafale planes is 8.139 billion which is on today's prices 65,000 crores. So 65,000 crores for 36 planes today comes to more than 1700 crores per aircraft. So as I said the government is hiding is saying that no, no reliance when this question was raised how is India's aeronautics kicked out and reliance brought in. Government now feigns ignorance and says we have nothing to do with it. So this is what Deshault has signed. He had agreed with whoever. But then we found this offset guidelines of the government itself which came into force in April 2016 just five months before this deal is signed by this very government. And this guideline says every offset contract regardless of value has to be approved by the Raksha Mantri. By the Raksha Mantri, by the defence minister. And today the government says they have given a bogus company of 21,000 crores what can we do with it? What can we do with it? And then this spin about India's specific upgrades. We have put six documents in their annexures which say repeatedly again and again and again that the negotiation for the first contract was with everything. That was the RFP with maintenance, with weaponry, with everything. That's the statement of the government in parliament also that 70 crores includes everything. That's the statement of the, of that, so that Parikkar also, CEO Eric Trapper said that we are not moving out at all. We are not budding from the RFP. We are going to stick to the RFP and deliver according to the RFP. This Parikkar says that no, no, we, we cancelled that 126 plane deal because that would have been too expensive. It would have cost us 90,000 crores for 126 planes which comes to 715 crores per aircraft. And now we find that they have signed a deal for 36 aircraft for 65,000 crores which comes to 1,700 crores per aircraft. Or, you see, that is why they are hiding behind secrecy because they know that as soon as they put the papers on the table the game will be up. And as Arunji pointed out, this has several implications. First, they have completely compromised the security of this country. Air force for the last so many years has been saying we are short of at least 7 squadrons and we need 7 squadrons. On that basis, that RFP was floated for 126 aircraft and that has reduced suddenly to 36. Without anybody, nobody in the air force, nobody in the defense ministry and the fleet even is. We don't know that would have been too expensive. And therefore 36, when you almost two and a half times you have made the price of the aircraft and make in India which was one of the central pieces of that earlier program that you will acquire the technology to be able to make this aircraft in India. One other thing, you see, make in India would initially be more expensive than buying ready to fly because initially you have to set up the plant. You have to pay the cost of transfer of technology. But even with all that, according to Mr. Parikar, the price was still 715 crores per aircraft. If you had to buy ready to fly, it would have come to less than that. Less than 715 crores because make in India would involve long term benefit but in the short term you have to pay a higher price because in the long term you will be able to manufacture these planes in your own factory in Hindustan aeronautics. All that is given a go-by and then one of the other lies being told to us is no, no, this is a government to government deal. How can there be any hanky-panky in a government to government deal? It is like suppose our government entered into an agreement with France. If we are making you any lambani, this frigate, that frigate we supply you with 10,000 crores. And you, the French government says, okay, give 50% of its offset to our people. And this government to government deal. Can you say that because it is a government to government deal therefore they can't pay any hanky-panky. I mean it makes complete nonsense of this. I mean if there is a corrupt government, it will certainly enter into a deal. Both of them are getting benefit, both of them are getting benefit. They are getting higher price. France for the same aircraft, their company and here their crony are getting offset contracts. So one after another, this whole process has revealed the lives of the government. The first lie was that price can't be revealed. Second lie was that this 126 was brought down to 36 because 126 was too expensive. Third lie was that offset contract was decided by Dessort. Fourth lie was that this was cheaper, that this new deal of 36 aircrafts is cheaper than the previous deal etc. And then they asked, I don't have any corrupt deals. That because the add-ons are okay. Now we have busted that add-ons business by pointing out that the earlier deal had everything. And the government has stated that 670 crores is the price inclusive of everything. How are we now, how is Dessort and Reliance now giving a figure of 60,000 crores for 36 planes which has not been contradicted by anybody in the government? It means, it means that in fact the agreement that has been entered into is at a price which is at least a thousand crores more per aircraft than the earlier contract, more than double. And then they asked, There is no corruption in this. There was a middle man in both wars. Who is the middle man in this? Who is Ambani? Where did Ambani come from in this deal? 21,000 crores will be found in such a bucket? They are saying who is Q? This is Q and A. This is the Q, this is the A of the Raphael scam. And as Arun, I said that this is a textbook case of criminal misconduct. See, just now they did a work. 10 days ago the Parliament amended the Prevention of Corruption Act. And the criminal misconduct in which all public servants were charged in 2G and Colgate was removed. Section 13, criminal misconduct has been replaced by a new section. Why? Now see how the criminal misconduct was defined. If a public servant gives an undue benefit to any private person, any person without any public interest or by abusing his power as a public servant that is criminal misconduct. Section 13, 1D, 2, 13, 1D, 3. There is no public interest in this. You have increased the price, removed the Indian aeronautics, brought the Reliance. What is the public interest? You have given an undue benefit. You have increased the price by 1000 crores. And by misusing your authority, the Prime Minister had no authority without approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security, without any requirement from the Air Force, without any requirement from the Defense Ministry. He had no business, no authority to enter into a new agreement for 36 planes. And therefore this is a textbook case of criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act on which Mr. Modi personally would have been prosecuted. Would have been prosecuted. I mean, there is no escape from this whatsoever. As a lawyer, I can tell you there cannot be a stronger case for criminal misconduct than this. And that is why this amendment has been made just 10 days ago to get them out, get them off the hook. Of course, the Babus are also very happy that, okay, if you come forward, we will also not have any prosecution. So therefore, as Arun Hai said, that all of us owe a duty to this country to keep our eyes firmly on this, to keep asking these questions, and so does the opposition of this country. And if this government had any shame whatsoever, they would stop hiding behind this smoke screen of secrecy and put out everything, all the documents on the table. The French Prime Minister has already said that he has no objection to this being done. Thank you. I will be very brief. I have some experience of working in two important industries of the government of India. And I can tell you from my personal experience that when a high-level visit takes place, for instance, the Prime Minister of India is going to France, then the joint statement is worked out in advance, two-ing and three-ing takes place between the external affairs ministry, the BMO and the Indian Embassy and the French government. And then everything is tied up. The joint communique is ready. The principles only give their approval and then it is put in public domain. That is the procedure. When the foreign secretary said two days before the issue of this joint statement that we are pursuing the older contract of 1.6 planes, then clearly he was not in the know of the desire of the government or the Prime Minister to purchase 36 Rafale aircraft. And that is why he made the statement that you made which we have given you in our statement. So the foreign secretary did not know. The Rakshamantri did not know because repeatedly he said it is Modi's decision. I back it up. And the Cabinet Committee on Security which should have taken the decision first of all to scrap the earlier deal for 1.26 and then authorize the negotiation for the 36 aircraft. That was not in the picture at all. As Amici said it came in the picture a year later. So who took this decision? The decision was taken by just one person in the government and that is the Prime Minister of India. He had no collaborators in this venture. He rode alone. We made a mockery of make in India which is again huge slogan of this government. And then I like to point out one more thing which came to my notice as I was coming here that as you are aware we have a very large contingent of the Russian fighters. SU-30NKI and the passengers which are live from that aircraft is also under production. Now the Air Forces plan was that both the SU-30NKI and the passengers will be equipped by missiles, air-to-air missiles and the meteor air-to-air missiles and the cruise missiles, subsonic cruise missiles that these aircraft will also be equipped with them. And there was discussion going on with MBTA, French-led European Missile Consortium, for the purchase of these. Now this great agon secret weapon that nobody knows about are these missiles, air-to-air, which are the Twitter, Rafale Aircraft will be equipped. But what has happened is that most sooner was the contract for these statistics. Rafale Aircraft was concluded that MBTA has walked out of this negotiation and they are saying that we cannot supply you these missiles because our secrecy will be compromised. And there are defence experts who have told me that the French were actually waiting. They kept the command of India Air Force engaged in the negotiations until the Rafale deal was concluded and then said we are not interested in putting your other aircraft. And these defence experts told me that if for nothing here, for this reason, the government of India should cancel the contract with Dassault for the supply of these 36 planes because they have not played fair with us. So friends, there has been a demand from the congress party that there should be a joint parliamentary committee which would examine it. I know that this look survives on its last length. So a joint parliamentary committee will never function so quickly as to reverse the results in this look survive. I would suggest on our behalf that the audit through which CNAG was supposed to take up, that should be a forensic audit and it should be completed by the CNAG within three months. Within three months the CNAG should complete the forensic audit of this particular deal and place the findings before the nation. It is a huge scam. There is no doubt about it. Air Force fails into insignificant failure before this scam. We had no party interest in three of us here, but we thought national duty demanded that we come before you and place these facts which have been well researched and they are in your hands. We have to fight this battle. We have to prevent this loss to the national etc. This is our national duty. This is also your national duty. Thank you. Can I just add one small point? I had mentioned to you how we have to beware of plants. I will give you an example from yesterday one of our major papers. The story is that if there was a new deal, if you are cancelling something and then suddenly there is a new deal, you have to go through such a procedure. So they say, yes, yes. What happened was that during the course of the negotiations it became clear that actually speaking, they all put no longer VVL1. In the meantime, the rival Eurofighter had written to the Indian defence minister, we quoted the letter and actually annexed the letter also. A letter from Eurofighter saying we are prepared to reduce our price by 20%. So these people now say, see, this threshold would no longer be VVL1. Therefore we thought we should scrap the old deal of 126 and go for some new deal. In fact, as Prashantya said, all of us have said, the new aircraft are twice what you were negotiating at that time, twice the cost. But the other point is, is it that the paper should have realised this when they swallowed and vomited this plant, that is the policy of the government to keep one particular vendor at L1 so that it can get the contract or is it the policy of the government to get the best deal for India? And if in your own say so, it is now such that you have to go through a new deal, then there are all sorts of requirements which you have to go through including a new tender, a re-election of everybody's bids and so on. None of that was done. So we should be very careful about both the very skilled government in planting stories in channels and newspapers and also in other commercial people who may be benefiting from this and who have unfortunately endures into all of us. Thank you.