Rafale deal Modi’s reciprocal gesture to France: Expert

Prime Minister Narendra Modi went for buying 36 French Rafale fighter jets as a reciprocal gesture to France being the only country that stood with India in 1998 when then Vajpayee government tested the nuclear weapons in May 1998.

It was a diplomatic gesture as Modi pointed out at a meeting of the bureaucrats to clear the obstacles in the Rafale deal on how India was isolated as even the Russians opposed it and expressed their displeasure when then PM’s special envoy and national security adviser (NSA) Brajesh Mishra visited Moscow after the tests, and many countries even imposed sanctions or pulled out their envoys from Delhi.

KP Nayar, veteran journalist and noted expert on diplomacy, quotes Modi from that meeting underlining that France had been sensitive to India’s needs when the Vajpayee government had its back to the wall and gave support at every turn after the nuclear option was exercised on May 11 and 13, 1998.

He says Modi stressed that India, too, has to be alert to French sensitivities now. The deal was important for France and since the planes met the specifications of the Indian Air Force, the ambassador’s views had to be considered.

Writing in a Chandigarh daily, Nayar said Modi had done his homework as he quoted from telegrams sent by Ranjan Mathai, who was ambassador in Paris in 2007 after the Dassault Aviation placed its bid for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft in August that year. Mathai, who later became the foreign secretary, had familiarised himself with Rafale at air shows in France and had given his impressions in those telegrams, stressing India’s strategic imperatives in aligning with France.

France had been sensitive to India’s needs when the Vajpayee government had its back to the wall and gave support at every turn after the nuclear option was exercised on May 11 and 13, 1998