BENGALURU: Escalating attack on the Modi government over Rafale deal, senior Congress leader Jaipal Reddy on Thursday alleged that India has incurred Rs 41,000 crore loss with the Centre inking a new deal with the French aviation company for buying combat aircrafts.

Speaking to reporters here, Reddy alleged that the prime objective of the deal was to help Modi's friend Anil Ambani who floated a new company just12 days before striking the deal.

Not only the new deal has affected public sector undertaking HAL which was supposed to produce aircrafts as per the earlier deal agreed to by UPA government, it has also resulted in losing an opportunity to create 10,000 jobs for the youth of the country, Reddy alleged.

Reiterating the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee’s probe into the new deal, Reddy alleged that the Centre has been reluctant fearing that truth will come out. When asked why Congress is reluctant to move the court seeking a probe, Reddy said: "In parliamentary democracy, we don't go to courts."

On the arrest of five activists for having links with Naxals, Reddy alleged that the Modi government has arrested them on ideological basis, whereas the Congress government had arrested them after implicating them in specific cases. He was replying to a question about similar arrests during the UPA regime.

"When we arrested persons with Maoists links, we did it after implicating them in specific cases. We did not make arrests on ideological basis as done by the central government," he said.

