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Introduction
The ongoing slugfest between the Congress and BJP pertaining to the controversial Rafale deal got a shot in the arm when recently a French media house published a story, which quoted former French President Francois Hollande saying that the Indian government had ‘proposed’ that Anil Ambani’s firm, Reliance Defence Limited be picked up as the partner of Dassault Aviation for Rafale offset contracts. The key sentence in his reply was that; “We did not have a choice”.
In fact, the decision taken by PM Narendra Modi, during his visit to France on 10 April 2015, to buy 36 French-manufactured Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from Dassault, the French aircraft builder at a cost of Rs. 59,000 crore or 7.8 billion Euros had stirred up this controversy.
The Congress Party had alleged that the cost of each aircraft is three times more than what the previous UPA government had negotiated with France in 2012.
Rahul Gandhi had also asked the government to disclose the exact cost of each aircraft along with the price of all accessories/ armaments being procured with the aircraft.
However, the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February 2018 had told the Parliament, that the details of the deal with France for the Rafale fighter jets cannot be disclosed because of national security reasons.
In the succeeding paragraphs we will try and understand the specific reasons that are at the heart of this controversy.
The Contours of the “Rafale Deal”
The Indian Air Force has an express need to phase out its aging fleet of MIG-21s and MIG-27s and to upgrade India’s air warfare capabilities in keeping with the modernization plans and air combat capability of Pakistan and China.
It is a known fact that India’s indigenously manufactured Tejas Mark-II is likely to be inducted into service only by 2021-22. Therefore, the UPA government took the decision to procure a top-of-the-end combat aircraft to fill the void.
In August, 2007, the UPA government floated a tender to purchase 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF. Finally, Rafale was chosen in 2012 over rival offers from the United States, Europe and Russia.
Rafale is a twin-engine, multi-role, nuclear-capable fighter jet, which is designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat and its on-board Electronic Warfare (EW) systems can also perform reconnaissance and radar jamming roles.
The estimated cost of the deal for 126 aircrafts was initially $12 billion, but the cost increased to about $20 billion, primarily because of an Indian requirement that 108 of these jets be built in the country by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL).
However, it may be understood that the above cost was exclusively for the Rafale aircrafts and did not include any weaponry, guarantee for maintenance, supplies and availability or sharing of any technology with India.
The UPA government continued to engage with France on the deal and negotiations were still underway when Modi-led BJP government came into power in 2014.
The Modi government found the Rafale twin-engine planes too expensive and the deal fell through after nearly decade-long negotiations between India and France.
However, faced with the dipping number of fighters and a pressing need to upgrade the Indian Air Force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to buy 36 "ready-to-fly" fighters instead of trying to acquire technology from Dassault and make it in India.
Finally, in September 2016, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France, dubbed as the "Rafale deal” for the procurement of 36 Rafale jets. The delivery of these jets is scheduled to commence from September, 2019.
Accusations Pertaining to the Deal as Highlighted by Congress
The Congress Party accused the government of the following with respect to the Rafale Deal:
The reasons given by the government regarding the increased price of the ‘Rafale Deal’ is that the negotiated cost includes the following, which did not form a part of the deal negotiated by UPA:
Secondly, there is a confidentiality clause in the Rafale deal which bars the buyer and seller from talking about the pricing, making it impossible for any government to reveal any detail about the defence deals.
Lastly, Reliance Defence Limited has pointed out that its subsidiary Reliance Aerostructure and Dassault Aviation has formed a joint venture, called “Dassault Reliance Aerospace”, after a bilateral agreement between two private companies and the Indian government has no role to play in this.
Moreover, Dassault Aviation had dropped HAL because the cost-per-piece it offered to manufacture the aircraft in India was higher than its stipulated cost of manufacture in France.
Conclusion
The allegations and counter-allegations being flung at each other by both, Congress and BJP are now in the realm of absurdness, e.g. BJP alleges that the UPA government cancelled the Rafale deal with France as a firm linked to Robert Vadra was not accepted as ‘middleman’ and Rahul Gandhi’s tweet ‘India’s commander-in-thief’ without naming PM Modi, and so on.
One does not know if there is any foul play in the Rafale Deal, but what is for sure is that, thanks to murky politics, India’s credibility as a nation has taken a serious beating owing to this unwarranted controversy.
The most significant fallout of such controversies is that the modernization plan of the India Armed Forces is thrown out of gear, procurement of essentials gets unduly stalled and it becomes increasingly frustrating for the troops on the ground to fight the odds without the requisite wherewithal.
The ongoing slugfest between the Congress and BJP pertaining to the controversial Rafale deal got a shot in the arm when recently a French media house published a story, which quoted former French President Francois Hollande saying that the Indian government had ‘proposed’ that Anil Ambani’s firm, Reliance Defence Limited be picked up as the partner of Dassault Aviation for Rafale offset contracts. The key sentence in his reply was that; “We did not have a choice”.
In fact, the decision taken by PM Narendra Modi, during his visit to France on 10 April 2015, to buy 36 French-manufactured Rafale fighter jets off-the-shelf from Dassault, the French aircraft builder at a cost of Rs. 59,000 crore or 7.8 billion Euros had stirred up this controversy.
The Congress Party had alleged that the cost of each aircraft is three times more than what the previous UPA government had negotiated with France in 2012.
Rahul Gandhi had also asked the government to disclose the exact cost of each aircraft along with the price of all accessories/ armaments being procured with the aircraft.
However, the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February 2018 had told the Parliament, that the details of the deal with France for the Rafale fighter jets cannot be disclosed because of national security reasons.
In the succeeding paragraphs we will try and understand the specific reasons that are at the heart of this controversy.
The Contours of the “Rafale Deal”
The Indian Air Force has an express need to phase out its aging fleet of MIG-21s and MIG-27s and to upgrade India’s air warfare capabilities in keeping with the modernization plans and air combat capability of Pakistan and China.
It is a known fact that India’s indigenously manufactured Tejas Mark-II is likely to be inducted into service only by 2021-22. Therefore, the UPA government took the decision to procure a top-of-the-end combat aircraft to fill the void.
In August, 2007, the UPA government floated a tender to purchase 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF. Finally, Rafale was chosen in 2012 over rival offers from the United States, Europe and Russia.
Rafale is a twin-engine, multi-role, nuclear-capable fighter jet, which is designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat and its on-board Electronic Warfare (EW) systems can also perform reconnaissance and radar jamming roles.
The estimated cost of the deal for 126 aircrafts was initially $12 billion, but the cost increased to about $20 billion, primarily because of an Indian requirement that 108 of these jets be built in the country by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL).
However, it may be understood that the above cost was exclusively for the Rafale aircrafts and did not include any weaponry, guarantee for maintenance, supplies and availability or sharing of any technology with India.
The UPA government continued to engage with France on the deal and negotiations were still underway when Modi-led BJP government came into power in 2014.
The Modi government found the Rafale twin-engine planes too expensive and the deal fell through after nearly decade-long negotiations between India and France.
However, faced with the dipping number of fighters and a pressing need to upgrade the Indian Air Force, Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to buy 36 "ready-to-fly" fighters instead of trying to acquire technology from Dassault and make it in India.
Finally, in September 2016, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France, dubbed as the "Rafale deal” for the procurement of 36 Rafale jets. The delivery of these jets is scheduled to commence from September, 2019.
Accusations Pertaining to the Deal as Highlighted by Congress
The Congress Party accused the government of the following with respect to the Rafale Deal:
- The Congress has accused the government of causing "insurmountable loss" of taxpayers' money by signing the deal worth 59,000 crores, which is allegedly at three times the original cost negotiated by UPA Government with France in 2012.
- Congress has asked the government to come clean on the deal and give out the detailed breakdown of the said cost.
- Congress also claims that Anil Ambani’s company, Reliance Defence Limited has been unfairly picked up by the Modi government over a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), i.e. Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) to be the French firm, Dassault Aviation’s Indian partner.
- Lastly, Congress accused the ruling BJP that by going through this multi-billion dollar deal in a non-transparent manner it has also exposed “one of the biggest failures” of Modi’s pet project, i.e. 'Make-in-India'.
The reasons given by the government regarding the increased price of the ‘Rafale Deal’ is that the negotiated cost includes the following, which did not form a part of the deal negotiated by UPA:
- India will be provided with spares and weaponry, including the Meteor missile, considered among the most advanced in the world.
- An “offset” clause has been negotiated in the deal, as per which, France will invest 30 per cent of the 7.8 billion Euros of the Rafale Deal in India's military aeronautics-related research programmes and 20 per cent into local production of Rafale components.
- Dassault and its main partners, “Safran” (engine maker) and “Thales” (maker of electronic systems) will share some technology with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organization) and some private sector companies and HAL under the offsets clause.
Secondly, there is a confidentiality clause in the Rafale deal which bars the buyer and seller from talking about the pricing, making it impossible for any government to reveal any detail about the defence deals.
Lastly, Reliance Defence Limited has pointed out that its subsidiary Reliance Aerostructure and Dassault Aviation has formed a joint venture, called “Dassault Reliance Aerospace”, after a bilateral agreement between two private companies and the Indian government has no role to play in this.
Moreover, Dassault Aviation had dropped HAL because the cost-per-piece it offered to manufacture the aircraft in India was higher than its stipulated cost of manufacture in France.
Conclusion
The allegations and counter-allegations being flung at each other by both, Congress and BJP are now in the realm of absurdness, e.g. BJP alleges that the UPA government cancelled the Rafale deal with France as a firm linked to Robert Vadra was not accepted as ‘middleman’ and Rahul Gandhi’s tweet ‘India’s commander-in-thief’ without naming PM Modi, and so on.
One does not know if there is any foul play in the Rafale Deal, but what is for sure is that, thanks to murky politics, India’s credibility as a nation has taken a serious beating owing to this unwarranted controversy.
The most significant fallout of such controversies is that the modernization plan of the India Armed Forces is thrown out of gear, procurement of essentials gets unduly stalled and it becomes increasingly frustrating for the troops on the ground to fight the odds without the requisite wherewithal.
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