The Congress accused Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of lying about the number of fighter aircraft required by the Indian Air Force, and termed as preposterous her claim that the IAF does not have parking and maintenance facility to fly 126 fighter jets.

Randeep Surjewala

New Delhi:

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to "arbitrarily" reduce requirement of 126 fighter aircraft to 36 is "unexplainable". Surjewala reiterated his party's demand for a joint parliamentary committee report in the Rafale deal.

"Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is caught lying again on the number of fighter aircraft required by Indian Air Force...PM Modi's decision to arbitrarily reduce requirement of 126 fighter aircraft to 36 is unexplainable," he told reporters.

In a newspaper report Thursday, Sitharaman was quoted as saying the government decided to purchase only 36 Rafale fighter jet from France instead of the 126 being negotiated by the UPA government as infrastructure and other technical requirements of the Indian Air Force do not allow for greater procurement.

"The claim of the defence minister that IAF does not have parking and maintenance facility to fly 126 fighter jets is preposterous and goes against the grain of national security requirements," Surjewala said.

He said the defence minister's argument is "obnoxious" and asked if the government and the Air Force cannot create parking space/maintenance facility in 6-8 years period, during which the aircraft will be delivered.

"Can creation of parking space/maintenance facility be a ground for compromising air superiority and national security?" he asked.

Alleging a scam in the Rafale deal, the Congress leader asked how can the defence minister shed her responsibility by saying that it is a decision taken by 'commercial enterprise' in selecting a private player for offset contracts worth Rs 30,000 crore when it is a 'government-to-government contract'.

"Does she forget her own claim that it is a 'government-to-government contract' backed by 'Inter Governmental Agreement' (IGA) and the amount of Rs 61,000 crore is being paid by Government of India to Dassault? Does it not prove malice and mala fides of the Modi Government?

"Let the prime minister and defence minister own accountability and submit to a JPC probe instead of lying to the nation about the deal," he said.

Surjewala alleged, "Lie, belie and fly in face of stark truth is the chameleon-like character of Modi Government."

He asked whether the defence minister knows there is a sanctioned strength of 42 air squadrons for the IAF.

Noting that the current number of air squadrons is 33, he said they are likely to fall to 31 by 2021. And considering that Rafale aircraft will not be delivered till 2022, there will be available existing space for seven more squadrons that means 126 aircraft, he said.