QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The defence minister replied to questions raised by the Congress in her 150-minute speech. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said the answers didn’t address real issues.
CONGRESS: Who decided to raise the price of aircraft to be made by HAL and it required more
the aircraft from ~526 crore to ~1,600 crore? time to produce them.
Was this an air force decision, was it the Did defence ministry object to any element of defence ministry's decision or was it the prime this new deal and are there documents with minister's decision? the defence ministry to show the deal was MINISTER: Comparing the cost of ~526 crore with opposed?
~1,600 crore, is like comparing apples to oranges. In 74 meetings held among the Indian negotiation The cost quoted in 2007 will it remain the same in team (which included air force and defence ministry 2016, because there is escalation cost and officials) and with French negotiators, all members there is exchange rate variation. of the Indian negotiators signed the report
Who took the decision to reduce the indicating the new deal had better
number of aircraft from 126 to 36 terms and conditions
and were national security concerns taken into account? Buying two squadrons is not because someone chose to do it. It is because the IAF advised it. Eighteen has been enhanced to 36.
Who gave the [offset] contract to Anil Ambani [-led firm Reliance Defence] instead of HAL? The contract to procure 126 aircraft could not be concluded as Dassault
was not giving guarantee for the
Modi,” she said.
The discussion on the Rafale deal, which began on Wednesday, could not be concluded on Thursday because of a ruckus created by protesting All India Anna Dravidra Munnetra Kazagham and Telugu Desam Party members who were later suspended by speaker Sumitra Mahajan. Intervention by finance minister Arun Jaitley on
The crux (of her speech) was that the deal was negotiated by air force for over eight years and Modi changed that contract in two minutes... I just asked her — did they [air force] object? Yes or no? She just ran away
the issue also took place on Wednesday.
Prior to the resumption of the debate, Gandhi told reporters in the Parliament House complex that his party would initiate a probe into the deal if it came to power in 2019.
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of running away from the debate in Parliament, the Congress president posed a series of questions to Sitharaman.
“Who decided to raise the price of the aircraft from ₹526 crore to ₹1,600 crore? Whose decision was this? Was this an air force decision, was it the defence ministry’s decision or was it the Prime Minister’s decision? There has to be a clearcut answer, no confusion,” he said.