‘ There was no Rafale deal under previous UPA govt’

New Delhi, Feb. 10: The original deal to procure 126 fighter jet could not go through during the UPA rule despite reaching the final stage as the then defence minister A. K. Antony felt there was something wrong in the process and asked for a review, defence ministry sources claimed.

The sources talked about Mr Antony’s intervention while asserting that there was no deal arrived at during the UPA regime to procure 126 medium multirole combat aircraft

( MMRCA).

The Congress has been ramping up attack on the government over the Rafale issue, claiming that the deal negotiated under its rule was much cheaper then the contract signed by the Modi government to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France at a cost of ` 58,000 crore.

The sources said Mr Antony’s apprehensions may have been genuine and he may have had bonafide reasons for such an intervention. The price negotiating committee was at that time examining the deal after initially getting approval for it from the then defence minister.

The sources also said that the Eurofighter Typhoon had offered to bring down their prices by 25 per cent after Rafale was declared L1 vendor.

“Such a proposal after declaring the winning bidder was not at all acceptable as per laid down procedure. You cannot do that,” said a source. Alleging a “scam”, the Opposition Congress has been asking the government whether the per aircraft price of Rafale comes to $ 80.95 million (` 526.1 crore).