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government. The campaign had fence and Hindustan Shipyard Lim-
made the government jittery but did ited (HSL) responded to a request for
not bring the desired electoral gains expression of interest in building six
for the opposition party as Modi conventional diesel-electric subma-
returned to power with a bigger rines for the Indian Navy (Project 75-I)
mandate. Earlier, the Supreme Court under Strategic Partnership Model.
too had rejected a plea to probe the The estimated cost of the project is
“
deal. That was seen by the ruling 45,000 crore.
BJP as a closure of the issue and one Later, an empowered committee’ of
that gave a befitting lesson to the the Indian Navy, headed by the Navy’s
opposition party. Controller of Warship Production and
However, the Congress appears to Acquisition, examined the manufac-
be in no mood to give up and has start- turing facilities, financial records and
ed off the year 2020 by targeting the other criteria of the five companies and
short listed two of them, government-
owned Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders
The Congress alleges Limited and Larsen & Toubro.
The Congress suspects that the
favouritism in ongoing government now seeks to overrule
reviews for the 45,000 the ‘empowered committee’ of Indian
crore Submarine Project Navy by directing the ministry to con-
sider Adani Defence JV. “Adani Defence
75-I and demands that the has zero experience of making ships or
government should come submarines. It seeks to manufacture
submarines based on a clause wherein
clean on the project. The
Opposition party says the
empowered committee
Modi 2.0 government in another mega
defence deal. comprising set up to review “
entries for the project had
he opposition party has now al-
leged that Prime Minister Nar- rejected the bids by Adani
T endra Modi was about to con- Defence and HSL on grounds
sider favouring private player Adani
Defence, whose bid for the submarine that they were not even
project was rejected by an expert panel eligible to apply
of the Indian Navy. Just like it did in the
Rafale deal, the Congress has urged the
premier to come clean on the issue. its experience of setting up and run-
“Let the Prime Minister and Defence ning a power plant is counted,” said
Minister (Rajnath Singh) come forward Surjewala.
and answer that ‘fairness’ not ‘foul play’, The Congress further alleges that
‘nationalism’, not ‘crony capitalism’ will Adani Defence or HSL had violated
be the yardsticks for decision on India’s the rules as they did not constitute any
prestigious submarine project,” Con- ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ (SPV) needed
gress chief spokesperson Randeep Sur- to be set up as per defence ministry
jewala said. directions till the last date of submis-
The story began in April 2019 when sion of request for expression of inter-
five entities including Larsen & Toubro est i.e. September 11, 2019. “The defence
Limited, Mazagaon Dock Shipbuilders ministry is required to mandatorily
Limited, Reliance Naval & Engineering approve the Special Purpose Vehicle
Limited, Hindustan Shipyard Limited (SPV) and scrutinize it thoroughly,” the
(HSL) and a joint venture of Adani De- Congress spokesperson said.
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