Ajit Doval Illegally Negotiated in Rafale Deal: Prashant Bhushan

According to a note tweeted by Prashant Bhushan, NSA illegally negotiated with France about Rafale Deal.

According to a note tweeted by Prashant Bhushan, Ajit Doval illegally negotiated with France about Rafale Deal.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan tweeted Defence Ministry documents on Rafale deal on Thursday, 15 November, stating the National Security Advisor (NSA), Ajit Doval, was illegally negotiating with France, whereas, only the Internal Negotiating Team (INT) was supposed to do it.

Bhushan tweeted a note of the Air Acquisition Wing of the Defence Ministry of 23 August, 2016, a day before inter-government agreement with France was approved by the Modi-led Cabinet Committee on Security.

According to the note, NSA Ajit Doval negotiated with the French side about the Rafale deal on 12 and 13 January 2016 in Paris.

Amid all the doubts around Rafale deal, Modi government’s various ministers have claimed that the deal negotiation was only handled by INT, headed by the Deputy Chief of the Indian Air Force.

According to News Central 24x7, legally, NSA was not a member of CCS in the year 2016, neither anyone outside INT was allowed to take part in negotiation. The defence minister who was not a member of INT, was only supposed to provide opinions when the INT referred a matter to the Defence Acquisition Committee chaired by him.

(With inputs from News Central 24x7.)