While the opposition is raising questions for sidelining state-run Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) in the Rafale deal, the Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Wednesday raised a question mark over the capabilities of HAL citing the recent example of the death of two Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots while testing the aircraft. "Sorry if I am sounding angry but since last three and half years HAL has been running only one program," VK Singh said.

Singh was in Pune on Wednesday where he interacted with media persons. When asked about the opposition parties allegations that the central government favoured businessman Anil Ambani in offset in the Rafale deal by sidelining HAL, he said, "The offset is decided by the company and not by the government. It is the sole decision of the company that they did not find HAL capable enough and they selected the other company. Now, how can you blame the government when it has no role in it." The former army chief also raised serious questions over the capabilities of the HAL by citing a recent example where two IAF pilots were killed after the testing aircraft crashed at the HAL's runway at Bengaluru. "Have a look at the condition of the HAL. Our two pilots had recently died while testing the aircraft. The parts of the aircraft are falling off at the runway only." "For last three and half years, they are running the same program. They are already behind the schedule where they have managed to refurbish only the 8th aircraft now. There are serious questions over the capabilities of HAL but we still say that HAL is not getting the work," Singh added.

While backing the government in the Rafale deal controversy, Singh stated that the issues related to national security should not be politicised. "We are in need of these 36 aircraft or the capabilities of our Air Force will hamper. Here we will keep pulling legs of each other and if enemy country opens attack on us, we will have to suffer huge damage," he said.

Singh also slammed the opposition parties over the Rafale controversy where he said, "In order to counter Bofors controversy, the strategists of opposition parties have come up with Rafale where they are making series of allegations so that people will start thinking that if there are so many allegations, at least some of them would be true. However, I want to make it clear that all these allegations are baseless."

Singh also blamed the Congress party for not pursuing the country's aeronautical program seriously. Giving the example of Hindustan Fighter (HF 24) aircraft, he said, "In the decade of 60s we had come up with the indigenous design of HF24 but since then the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) failed to develop the engine, we had to look for importing the engine for that aircraft. The France government took our design and they started the series of Mirage."

"The worst part is that all the data of HF24 just vanish. In my opinion that was the biggest act of treason," Singh claimed.in