Sitharaman at Rafale factory as row rages

NEW DELHI: Union railway minister Piyush Goyal on Friday accused Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his party of repeatedly “spreading falsehood and lies” over the Rafale deal, allegations that the opposition rejected while asking the government to respond with “factual answers”. The war of words, which have continued for a while now, came on a day when defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited a production facility of Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation near Paris.

NEW DELHI: Union railway minister Piyush Goyal on Friday accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his party of repeatedly “spreading falsehoods and lies” over the Rafale fighter jet deal, allegations the opposition rejected while asking the government to respond with “factual answers”.

The continuing war of words came on a day defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited a production facility of Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation near Paris in France. In New Delhi, Goyal said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government was able to negotiate terms that were “far better” than the terms negotiated during the Congress-led UPA’s tenure. “We have been able to get faster delivery, longer maintenance tenure, better availability of spare parts and the much-needed capabilities, particularly in the adversarial situation at the border,” he said.

The BJP-led NDA’s decision to enter an $8.7 billion governmentto-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes was announced in April 2015, with an agreement 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 the stateowned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. The 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.