New Delhi: After a brief hiatus, Rafale was back in the political domain as the Congress fired a fresh salvo on the issue alleging that the NDA government has wronged the country by reducing the number of aircraft as it “denied” the IAF the fighter jets it “desperately” needed and gave a “windfall” to Dassault Aviation by paying more per aircraft. The party reiterated its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Panel probe into the deal.
The government did not buy the 90 more aircraft needed by the Air Force and paid Rs 186 crore more to French firm Dassault for 13 India-specific enhancements in the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said. He said that the decision is not amenable to court but to a parliamentary panel.
The Congress has been alleging that the prime minister increased the ‘Benchmark Price’ of Rafale deal from 5.2 billion Euros to 8.2 billion Euros and that the NDA government paid over Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft against UPA’s negotiated price of Rs 527 crore per aircraft.
The fresh attack from the party comes after a media report on Friday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to buy 36 aircraft instead of the 126 asked for by the Indian Air Force pushed the price of each jet up by 41.42 per cent.
“The government has wronged the country in two ways - firstly, it has compromised national security by denying to the Air Force 90 fighter aircraft that they desperately need. Secondly, it has purchased two squadrons that will cost about €25 million more per aircraft. At the 2016 exchange rate, Euro 25 million is equal to Rs 186 crore. India will pay Rs 186 crore more per aircraft,” Mr Chidambaram said.
The BJP on its part alleged that the Congress was running a “malicious campaign” against the government on the Rafale deal and has “abandoned” nation interest for its false propaganda.
Union Minister Smriti Irani rejected the Congress’ charges against the government asserting that the opposition party’s “malicious campaign has been exposed” as she noted the Supreme Court verdict on the matter and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s over 90-minute reply in Parliament.
