The Rafale fighter jets were chosen in 2012 over rival offers from other countries by the Congress-led UPA II. The original plan was to buy 18 off-the-shelf jets from France's Dassault Aviation, with 108 others being assembled in India by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). However, the talks between the ruling coalition and Dassault could not materialise into a deal. Fast forward to 2016, the BJP government under PM Narendra Modi sealed the deal with French manufacturer to purchase 36 "ready-to-fly" fighters. The Congress-led opposition now alleges corruption in the defence deal owing to lack of transparency and has repeatedly raised the issue in Parliament.