Congress turns up pressure on Rafale

kolkata — Launching a fresh assault against the Modi government on the Rafale aircraft deal, the Congress on Saturday demanded a public debate and detailed inquiry into the “secretive” happenings and alleged that the defence procurement procedure had been ignored and senior ministers kept in the dark about the negotiations.

Senior party leader P. Chidambaram alleged that the price for the aircraft had increased over three times under the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime than what was agreed to by the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

“We think the matter is serious enough that there should be a public debate and a detailed inquiry, which is why the Congress President (Rahul Gandhi) and the party have raised the issue,” he told the media at the West Bengal Pradesh Congress headquarters here.

Chidambaram said the UPA government had entered into a contract to acquire 126 Rafale aircraft — 18 of them in fly away condition and the remaining 108 aircraft to be made in India by the public sector Undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in Bengaluru, under a transfer of technology agreement with a French company, Dassault Aviation.

“The negotiated price was Rs 5.26 billion per aircraft. Suppose instead of 18 aircraft, we were buying 36 aircraft at Rs 5.26 billion per aircraft, it would have come to Rs 189.4 billion,” he said.

However, after the UPA was voted out in 2014 and the NDA came to power, Prime Minister Narendra

Modi during an official visit to France on April 10, 2015 announced that an agreement had been signed to buy off the shelf 36 Rafale aircraft.

Although the price was not revealed, in subsequent documents of Dassault Aviation’s report, the price was given as 7.5 billion euros, equivalent to Rs 601.45 billion, Chidambaram claimed. “The price which was agreed on the Prime Minister’s visit was Rs 601.45 billion and per aircraft it comes to Rs 16.7 billion as against Rs 5.26 billion (negotiated by the UPA),” he said.

“If these numbers are correct, will someone explain why the price has gone up three times? That is the first question. To which the answer (given by the NDA government) is: ‘This is a secret agreement and we cannot reveal the price’.”

“I am revealing the price today, what is so secret about it? It is there in Dassault’s annual report which is 7.5 billion euros,” he said, while pointing out that the UPA had made public prices of the ship INS

Vikramaditya, the Kaveri Engine and the Sukhoi and Miraj aircraft.

Raising questions about the procedure followed for the new agreement, the Congress leader said: “There is a defence procurement procedure which was completely bypassed. There is a contract negotiation committee, which never met for this deal. There is a price negotiation committee, which was never called to meet for this deal.

“Above all, there is a cabinet committee on security, which has to approve any defence purchase of this size. None of these committees were involved. None of the ministers knew about it. The defence, finance and external ministers did not know about it.”

Chidambaram pointed out that even though the Rafale aircraft was supposed to be an emergency purchase to boost the depleted strength of the Indian Air Force, not a single aircraft has arrived even 40 months after the deal was clinched.

I am revealing the price today, what is so secret about it? It is there in Dassault’s annual report which is 7.5B euros P. Chidambaram, Congress leader