Rafale deal according to the rules framed by UPA: Sitharaman
MUMBAI : Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the Congress party has been ‘brazenly’ misleading the nation on the Rafale fighter jet deal despite the fact that the rules of the deals were framed by their government in 2012.
She said the allegations of crony capitalism and the offset claims (by Reliance in the deal) has no substance, but the Congress wants to bank on the element of doubt in the minds of people to damage the government.
Sitharaman was speaking at The India Summit organised by The Economist at a city hotel on Thursday. She said her government has been answering all the questions related to the deal raised by the Opposition, but the Congress was interested only in misleading the nation. She said that the policy and rules were framed by the Congress-led UPA government in 2012 and there was nothing new that was added by their government. She reiterated that Dassault, the French defence company, chose Reliance as its strategic partner in the Rafale deal and the government had no say in it. “Congress fully knows that there is no substance in the allegations and about the implications of the baseless allegations. They are fully aware that the offset claims (by Reliance) were to be made at the appropriate time. They have been accusing about the crony capitalism, but the fact is that the very organisation was existing in 2012 when the MMRCA (Medium Multi-role Combat Aircrafts) was discussed with Dassault. While replying to a question about the procurement, Sitharaman said that defence procurements are complex, complicated and time consuming and can be opaque.