Rafale deal: How Congress's constant attack has made a dent in Modi's image

In 2015, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the purchase of 36 Rafale jets from France, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh issued a statement, criticising BJP leader Subramanian Swamy for opposing it. The aircraft were required to bolster the country's defence preparedness, said Amarinder, who had served in the Army.

A few days later, however, Amarinder's party, the Congress, voiced its objections to the deal for the first time. It said the agreement favoured 'Make in France', rather than 'Make in India', and asked why only 36 fighters were being bought. Soon this developed into accusations of the prime minister unilaterally taking the decision to buy the fighter aircraft off-the-shelf. But by November 2017, the Congress raised the stakes on the issue, and started talking about a 'scam' in the deal and how the Modi government had compromised national interests and national security.

When swamped by journalists in Delhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who was then party vice president, said the media should ask Modi, not him, about the deal. “The PM, who changed the entire Rafale deal to favour one businessman, why do you not ask him questions regarding that?” he said. It was the first time that Rahul Gandhi directly attacked Modi on the alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. And it revealed that the Congress had smelt blood.

Then came the moment, which seemed like a Bofors redux. Former French president Francois Hollande said in an interview that his government had nothing to do with the choice of Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Limited for the offset contract, and that it was given at the Modi government's instance. Old timers instantly saw a parallel between how the Bofors controversy had broken out three decades ago, with Swedish Radio claiming that kickbacks were paid to Indian politicians and officials, and Hollande's interview.

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The Congress hopes that Rafale would prove to be as damaging to the ruling dispensation as Bofors was to the Rajiv Gandhi government. A six-member committee headed by S. Jaipal Reddy keeps up a persistent onslaught on the government. Media briefings are held all over the country and a dedicated website called corruptmodi.com has been launched. The party has been demanding a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee, and has petitioned the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commission to look into the alleged irregularities.

The relentless attack by the Congress seems to have upset the BJP's plans. The government's clean image was the political message that the party sought to convey to the people despite a flagging economy and dwindling jobs. The Congress sees the Rafale controversy as an opportunity to defeat this plans. It has cut through the technical details to convey a political message to the people. The strategy involves attacking Modi's carefully crafted image as an anti-corruption crusader, painting him as a crony capitalist, and raising questions about his nationalistic credentials.

“The prime minister needs to explain what happened since it was an arbitrary decision taken by him, and without any mandate from the Cabinet Committee on Security, he decided to do away with the three most important things of the original tender for purchase of 126 planes,” said senior Congress leader Anand Sharma. The three important aspects of the deal being highlighted by the Congress are—the Modi government doing away with the clause worked out by the UPA government on transfer of technology; the pushing out of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited as partner of Dassault to manufacture 108 planes; and the approved price of Rs 526 crore a plane going up to Rs 1,670 crore a plane.

The Congress's allegation is that Modi, by helping Ambani get the offset contract at the cost of the public sector HAL, went against national interests and played with national security. It is also alleged that by buying aircraft at a higher prices than what was negotiated by the UPA government, he has caused a huge loss to the public exchequer. “It is a political issue,” said senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal. “We will go to the people's court with the issue. They will decide and hand out punishment to the culprits.”

Instead of offering clarifications on the questions raised by the Congress, the BJP's counter-strategy has focused on digging out dirt on the UPA government's role in the deal. But the party has realised that the real trouble for the government would begin when Parliament meets for the winter session. As the government is unlikely to agree to the demand of setting up a JPC, it is expected that the session will be marred by disruptions.

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With Modi heading the government and Amit Shah the BJP, the demarcation between the government and the party has blurred—the prime minister and senior ministers talk politics without hesitation at official functions, and address press conferences at party headquarters. Whenever there is an attack from the opposition, both the party and the government launch a synchronised counter-offensive. And, as in the past, the BJP has brought into the picture their favourite point of attack on the Congress leadership—Robert Vadra. The allegation is that the UPA government wanted Vadra, Rahul's brother-in-law, to benefit from the Rafale deal along with absconding arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

“As Rafale documents were found from Bhandari, it was clear that the UPA government wanted to help him get deals,” alleged BJP leader Sambit Patra. He said the Congress was raising the issue as it failed to get any commission in the deal.

The BJP's search for a counter-narrative to the Congress's accusations has taken it back to the Gujarat assembly elections, when Modi played the victim card, accusing the opposition of joining hands with Pakistan to defeat him. Many Pakistani politicians had attributed the cancellation of foreign-minister level talks between the two countries to the political developments in India and Rahul's attacks on Modi. The BJP was quick to latching on to this, and Shah alleged that the Congress was getting support from Pakistan to target the Modi government. Even Modi said something similar in an apparent reference to the statements from Pakistan. “As the Congress is not getting support from allies within the country, it is forming an international alliance,” he said in the election-bound Madhya Pradesh.

Meanwhile, reflecting the change in the scenario, Amarinder Singh is now attacking the government on the Rafale deal, while Subramanian Swamy is defending it.