The government and the opposition continued their slug-fest over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, with former defence minister A.K. Antony targetting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday. After the government claimed that the NDA's deal was much cheaper than the deal which the previous UPA regime had proposed, Antony asked if that was true why the government purchased only 36 jets.
"Let us assume for a moment that all these claims that the NDA's deal was cheaper than UPA's deal are true, then why did not Prime Minister Narendra Modi purchase 126 Rafale jets, instead of only 36 jets?," Antony said.
"With threat looming on our eastern and western borders, modern air power is very crucial for Indian Air Force. Instead of catering to IAF's requirement, the Narendra Modi government seriously jeopardized India's national security and air combat preparedness by unilaterally ordering only 36 Rafale aircraft instead of the required 126 jets,"Antony said, while asking who authorised Modi to fix the number of fighter aircraft from 126 to 36.
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Quoting Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP), the former defence minister said that the Defence Acquisition Council, headed by the defence minister and consisting of three service chiefs, defence secretary, secretary of defence finance, DRDO chief, secretary of defence production and Coast Guard chief, is the only authorised body to decide on the number and clear the tender. "Modi's decision was a clear cut violation to the laid down rules," Antony said. He also said that the government cancelled the 126 MMRCA tender contract three months after announcing the new deal. The 36 Rafale deal was announced in April and 126 MMRCA tender was cancelled in June 2015.
Antony also demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee to look into the procurement of 36 Rafale jets, which has been turned down by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
In reply to Antony's allegations on Tuesday, Sitharaman said that the 36 Rafale jets deal was an inter-governmental agreement. "It was not an over-the-counter purchase, where you can negotiate the price," she said.
Recently, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that NDA's agreement was nine per cent cheaper than the UPA's proposal. Similarly, Finance Minister Arun Jatley claimed that their deal was 20 per cent cheaper. Even the deputy chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) came out with a statement that the current deal was 40 per cent cheaper that previous proposed deal.
Countering Antony's allegations, Sitharaman said the IAF's ideal strength was coming down and numbers were fixed after careful assessment. "In April 2015, there was just an expression of interest. But the actual working of the deal happened after one and half years. And in August 2016, CCS gave approval post which the deal was signed in September," she said.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks during a press conference at the Indian Women's Press Corps in New Delhi | AFP
Congress alleged that if the UPA deal for 126 fighter jets was not cancelled by the Modi government, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would have acquired 'transfer of technology' which was a key component of the RFP issued by the UPA.
"State of the art technology is the costliest to acquire in today's time. Modi government's deal of 36 Rafale jets brazenly forgoes transfer of technology clause. This means that the price of the aircraft must be substantially cheaper than the UPA deal,"Antony further said.
Reacting sharply to Sitharaman's earlier remarks that the HAL did not have the capability to produce 108 aircraft in India, Antony said that the defence minister was trying to tarnish a globally reputed public sector undertaking. "If HAL does not have the required capability, please let us know which company in India has the capability of manufacturing fighter jets," Antony argued.
The Congress claimed that the HAL—a navratna company—with 75 years of experience is the only aerospace manufacturing firm in the country. It has manufactured 4,060 aircraft of 31 types—licensed aircraft, UAVs, helicopters, Sukhoi 30, MiGs upgrades variants, Dornier 228, Jaguar, BAE Hawk, Cheetah and Chetak helicopters, LCA Tejas and many more.
Sitharaman said after several rounds of negotiations with HAL, Dassault Aviation—manufacturer of Rafaje jets—felt that the cost of Rafale jets will escalate significantly if they are produced in India. "So, that speaks which government has failed on them getting together," the defence minister said.
On the issue of kickbacks in the deal, Sitharaman said "There have been rumours so far. Let them gain strength. I am not saying anything, we will investigate."
Sitharaman also claimed that an unprecedented intervention in 2013 by Antony when the cost negotiation committee was giving final touches to the deal put the final nail in the coffin.
Antony, however, dismissed these allegations. "Her allegations are completely false. She is deliberately suppressing the facts. The contract negotiations were almost over and when the proposal was sent to the Finance Ministry, it felt that the life cycle cost concept was a new concept and they cannot support it. Moreover, various leaders including a senior BJP MP wrote to me by raising his reservations over the issue of life cycle cost. IAF was insisting to finalise the deal. So, I directed that the negotiations to continue, but take it to Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), only after disputes are settled," Antony clarified.
