Amid a fresh controversy over the Rafale deal, Air Marshal SBP Sinha (retd.), who was leading the Indian negotiating team for the fighter jet purchase on Friday rejected the charge that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had held parallel negotiations.
Former Defence Secretary G. Mohan Kumar also said it was “absolutely wrong” to say that the PMO was conducting parallel negotiations, as alleged in a media report citing internal Defence Ministry file notes.
Defending the deal, Mr. Kumar said it was negotiated in the “most transparent way.”
“There were no parallel negotiations and every word in the Inter-Governmental Agreement was jointly decided by the Indian and the French negotiating teams without participation of any other agency,” Air Marshal Sinha told PTI.
One of the top Air Force officials leading the Indian negotiating team, Air Marshal Sinha said the official who initiated the file noting was not part of the negotiating team and questioned his “locus standi” and motive for doing so.
He also claimed he had seen the note for the first time in the media and no one in the negotiating team was aware of it.
Mr. Kumar, who was the Defence Secretary when the deal was signed, said the matter (raised in the note) referred to sovereign guarantee and not the price.
A sovereign guarantee is a promise by the government to discharge the liability of a third person in case of his default whereas a Letter of Comfort is an assurance about a debt, short of a legal guarantee. France has given a ‘Letter of Comfort’.