Rafale deal: Govt blames UPA for HAL exclusion
Debate over contract details continues
NEWDELHI: The NDA government and the Congress locked horns over the controversial ₹59,000crore Rafale deal on Tuesday, with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman asserting that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) lost out on the chance to build the warplanes because of the previous UPA regime, and former defence minister AK Antony accusing Sitharaman of suppressing facts and demanding that a joint parliamentary committee probe be set up to investigate the deal.
“Dassault Aviation (the maker of Rafale jets) and HAL could not agree on production terms… The UPA government should have ensured that HAL’s offer was appealing enough for Dassault to conclude the agree- ment (to build 108 Rafale jets in India),” Sitharaman said, while interacting with reporters at the Indian Women’s Press Corps.
The NDA’s decision to enter into a government to government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes was announced in April 2015 with the deal signed a little over a year later. This replaced the UPA regime’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by HAL.
Sitharaman said it was for the UPA regime to answer why HAL was not chosen as a partner for the contract. “It’s not for us but for the UPA to answer as to why the agreement between Dassault
The UPA should have ensured that HAL’s offer was appealing enough for Dassault to conclude the agreement... It’s not for us but for the UPA to answer why the agreement did not happen
NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, Union defence minister Since there is a growing perception that the Modi government’s Rafale purchase deal has more skeletons in its closet, let there be a JPC probe to bring out the truth
AK ANTONY, former defence minister
and HAL did not happen.”
In a separate press conference, Antony accused the government of being guilty of “gravely compromising” national security in the Rafale deal.
“Since there is a growing perception that the Modi government’s Rafale purchase deal has more skeletons in its closet, let there be a JPC probe to bring out the truth,” the former minister said. He said the parliamentary committee could reveal the truth by poring over all the files related to the Rafale deal .
Antony accused Sitharaman of trying to blemish the HAL’s image. Last week, Sitharaman said the previous negotiations for 126 fighters collapsed as HAL did not have the required capability to produce the fighters in collaboration with Dassault.
Antony said if the deal negotiated by the NDA was better than the UPA’s then why did the government buy only 36 aircraft and not 126 planes.
A Congress leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, later said leaders of the party planned to meet the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Wednesday morning to ask for a thorough investigation in the matter.
Sitharaman underlined the government had responded to price issues raised by the Congress in Parliament.
“It was our duty to ensure that we get the best price. The price you (UPA) obtained for a basic aircraft when compared with the inter-governmental agreement that we have done, it is 9 per cent cheaper,” she said.
Sitharaman also rejected Antony’s charge that the government had compromised India’s security by reducing the number of jets ordered from 126 to 36. “He has done the negotiations, so he knows about how do they go. These are not over-thecounter purchases. Orders have to be placed and then they have to be manufactured, thus there is a timeline,” she said.
Asked to comment on kickback rumours in the Rafale deal during the previous regime, Sitharaman said, “There have been rumours so far. Let them gain strength. I am not saying we will investigate the deal.”
Congress president Rahul Gandhi charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with irregularities in the Rafale deal. Addressing a rally at Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh he again said the deal favours Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group.
Military affairs expert Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak (retd) said, “The up-scaling of the combat squadron numbers of the IAF is a crucial national imperative. This issue must be insulated from the political slugfest over defence acquisitions.”
The Rafale deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is ₹1,670 crore for each, three times the ₹526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.
The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has previously said, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison is moot. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal till 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid and also HAL’s ability to assemble the aircraft locally and the cost of doing so.
The NDA has said that the current deal also includes customized weaponry.
The deal has also become controversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group of Anil Ambani. The Congress claims the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani this opportunity for an offset deal. Both the government and Reliance have repeatedly denied this.
Sniffing an electoral opportunity in the Rafale deal, the Congress has been relentlessly keeping up the heat. Gandhi has claimed that it is “the corruption of the century”. The opposition party also said that it would make Rafale one of the main issues in its election campaign and claims that it resonates strongly with the electorate. The NDA government has said that it cannot disclose the details of the price on two counts: a confiden- tiality agreement with France, and the strategic reason of not showing its hand to India’s enemies.
Later in the evening, hours after Sitharaman’s statement on HAL, the Congress said the discussions on the cooperation between the Indian company and the French firm were on. “Had she bothered to ask Dassault Aviation, then they have publically stated in their Annual Report of 2015... that they are in active negotiation with the Public Sector Undertaking firm,” Congress’s chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, adding that similar claims had also been made in a press briefing by a bureaucrat before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France in 2015.