Rafale not a deal yet, negotiations still on

No deal is a deal unless it is clinched. The all- important Rafale fighter proposal — widely expected to be cleared during Thursday’s Defence Acquisition Committee ( DAC) meeting — is yet to be a deal.

A two- hour- long meeting, chaired by defence minister Manohar Parrikar ended with official sources tersely saying, “The committee negotiating the Rafale purchase briefed the DAC about the progress in the deal. The DAC directed the committee to submit its report expeditiously.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the government- to- government purchase of 36 fighter jets during his visit to France in April 2015 in order to skirt the long procedures through India’s famed official red tape, keeping in view India’s urgent need to replenish its ageing fighter squadrons. A standing committee on defence, in its report to the Lok Sabha in May, had already chided the Centre for delay in finalising the deal.

Reportedly, the hiccups are over issues of price disagreement and offsets. The French have, reportedly, insisted on the inking of a final agreement before envisaging a collaborative plan for offsets, although government officials have refused to comment on it.

Of the 50 per cent offset clause by India, the French are reportedly agreeable to 30 per cent military aerospace research and another 20 per cent for making components of Rafales in India.