Row on parallel Rafale talks rocks Parliament

“Then defence minister Manohar Parrikar ji replied to that MOD note saying ‘remain calm, nothing to worry, everything is going alright.’”

In his file noting, seen by HT, Parrikar wrote: “It appears that PMO and French president’s office are monitoring t he progress of the issue which was an outcome of the summit meeting.” He wrote that the last paragraph, which suggested a “revised modality of negotiations to be led by PMO”, appeared to be an overreaction and suggested that the defence secretary resolve the issue on consultation with the private secretary to the PM.

Former defence secretary Mohan Kumar told HT the defence ministry note was “not about the pricing of the jets but about the sovereign guarantee.”

“Various points emerge during the process of negotiations. We had thought it was not necessary for another point of negotiations. The whole thing . The issue of a sovereign guarantee was sorted out to the satisfaction of both sides,” he said.

Initially, India had demanded a sovereign guarantee from France to back up the purchase of 36 fighters. Later, however, India agreed to accept a “Letter of Comfort” from Paris.

In December, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions seeking a court-monitored probe into the purchase of the Rafale fighter jets and said there was no reason to doubt the process. In an affidavit to the court, the government said negotiations with French officials was carried out by an Indian Negotiating Team as per the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013.

Gandhi repeated his accusation “chowkidar chor hai” (the watchman is the thief). “Now, I want to speak to the youngsters of this nation and I want to speak to every single member of the armed forces of this nation. This is about your future, you defend us, you protect us, you fight for us, you die for us and here it is absolutely clear that the Prime Minister has stolen ₹30,000 crore of your money, bypassed the process and given it to his friend Mr Anil Ambani,” he alleged.

Sitharaman objected to Gandhi’s language. “It is very dangerous…is he trying to provoke the defence forces?,” she asked.

Her colleague, minister of human resource development Prakash Javadekar, also rubbished Gandhi’s allegations. “The lie-manufacturing factory of Rahul Gandhi continues to operate and he has served us yet another lie,” he said.

“Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are working to get the Rafale deal scrapped. They are playing in the hands of foreign forces and companies with vested i nterest,” Javadekar alleged.

The NDA’S decision to enter a government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault Aviation was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous United Progressive Alliance regime’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

The deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is ₹1,670 crore for each, three times the ₹526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.

The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, former defence minister Parrikar has previously said, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison is moot. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal till 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid.

The NDA has said that the current deal also includes customized weaponry.

The deal has also become con- troversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group of Anil Ambani. The Congress claims the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani this opportunity for an offset deal. Both the government and Reliance Group have repeatedly denied this.

Sniffing an electoral opportunity in the Rafale deal, the Congress has been relentlessly keeping up the heat. Gandhi has claimed that it is “the corruption of the century”.

In his reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, PM Narendra Modi said: “The Congress does not want our air force to be powerful. I am levelling a serious allegation. Who are they batting for?”

Former Lok Sabha secretary general and political analyst P Sridharan said, “The Supreme Court had said that there is no need for any enquiry into the Rafale deal. But now new facts are coming out. These facts are also very important. Political parties have the right to take their issues to the people and they must do so. But blocking Parliament proceedings would not serve any purpose.” work or worked as part-time labourers, about 2,800 were farmers or farm owners, and 1,180 prisoners had their own businesses or were traders. Only 214 of Tihar’s prisoners (1.4%) worked in the state or central government when they were arrested.

“Unfortunate as it may be, it is true that the poorer the person, the more chance of turning towards crime,” said a senior jail official who asked not to be named. “But some of the most notorious prisoners in jail today are those who are very rich. Gangster Neeraj Bawana [there are 15 cases of heinous crimes registered against him] comes from a fairly rich family and turned to crime for his own reasons.”

The official said that, every year, at least 20-25% of prisoners are habitual offenders. “These are people who do not have fixed jobs. Last year, there were 22% such prisoners — most of them are arrested for theft or snatching,” he added.

According to Sunil Gupta, who was a law officer at Tihar for 35 years before retiring in 2016, said a lot of the these prisoners are not properly represented.

“More than half the prison population is from slum clusters of Delhi. It will be wrong to say that all slum residents are criminals. But the truth is most of them are victims of circumstances. Many of them do not have regular jobs and get into crime. They cannot afford lawyers to bail them out, and thus languish in jail for long,” he said.

Gupta said education, too, is an important factor, pointing out that most prisoners are school dropouts.

Another expert who works in the field of prison reforms said the findings reflected a reality prevalent across the country.

“Most prisoners in jails across the country are poor. Also, most of them are first time offenders. In Tihar, inside jail 5, such prisoners are aged between 18 and 21,” said Ajay Verma, convener of the National Forum for Prison Reforms, which works on jails in the country.

“Some time ago, we trained such inmates in gems and jewellery designing. Such initiatives help them find jobs. A person’s tendency towards crime is reduced when he or she has a job. These type of initiatives and many others should be done across all prisons,” he added.

According to prison records, in December last year, 65.4% of the prisoners were either illiterate or left school before reaching class 10.

A jail spokesperson said: “The level of illiteracy is coming down every year because of the initiative such as Padho and Padhao. Classes are held and examinations are conducted so that no person returns to prison.”