With the Congress alleging irregularity in the Rafale deal, the Government on Wednesday came out strongly in defence of the deal even as it accused the Opposition of misleading the country.
The Government reiterated that its deal was better in many aspects than the one “notionally negotiated” by the Congress regime, which could not conclude it in 10 years. While it asserted that the demand for disclosing details and value of the contract for the Rafale aircraft was unrealistic, it pointed out that the approximate acquisition cost has already been provided to Parliament.
“It is also stressed once again that the procurement of 36 Rafale aircraft through an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with France to meet the urgent need of the IAF is strictly in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure in all aspects,” it said.
“As doubts are sought to be created about the 2016 contract for 36 aircraft, it is once again strongly reiterated that the deal secured by the Government is better in terms of capability, price, equipment, delivery, maintenance, training, etc., than that notionally negotiated by the then Government in a process it could not conclude in ten years,” the statement by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) maintained adding the present Government had completed the negotiations in just about one year.
“In another effort to twist facts, the Government is asked why it did not conduct negotiations with a particular company representing a competing fighter aircraft. It seems to have been conveniently forgotten that the then Government itself had rejected that company’s unsolicited offer made days after closure of the bid process, declared Rafale (DA) as the L1 bidder and had commenced negotiations with it in February 2012,” the Centre said in its statement.
“The demand that the Government disclose the details and value of the contract for the Rafale aircraft contracted in 2016 is unrealistic. [In keeping with confidentiality requirements, the UPA Government had also expressed its inability to disclose the price of various defence procurements, including in its responses to Parliament Questions],” the statement said.
The Centre also said the Opposition’s demand to disclose exact item-wise cost and other information will impact military preparedness and compromise national security.
“The approximate acquisition cost of the Rafale aircraft has already been provided to the Parliament.
Provision of exact item-wise cost and other information will reveal, inter alia, details regarding the various customizations and weapons systems specially designed to augment the effectiveness and lethality of the assets, impact our military preparedness and compromise our national security,” said the Government.
The Government stressed that 36 Rafale aircraft were procured to meet the urgent need of the Indian Air Force strictly in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure. And on the issue of transfer of technology, the Government said, “Contrary to the impression sought, to be created by the Opposition, in the earlier proposal to procure Rafale, which ended in a stalemate, there was no provision for transfer of technology but only to manufacture under license. The Government was unable to agree on the terms for even that in its negotiations with the vendor, resulting in the long-drawn exercise under the earlier Government ultimately turning futile.”
On the Congress allegation on why an Indian private company with zero experience in aviation was chosen as an offset partner to manufacture Rafale jets, the MoD said no offset partners has been selected so far.
“Further, no Indian Offset Partner for the 2016 deal for 36 Rafale Aircraft has been so far selected by the vendor (DA) because as per the applicable guidelines, DA is free to select the Indian Offset Partners and provide their details at the time of seeking offset credits, or one year prior to discharge of offset obligation,” it said.