In the face of continued allegations about the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday defended the decision saying it was taken as an emergency measure to meet the urgent requirement of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
“Between 2000 and 2014, entire decade the UPA government could not arrive at a decision. Fourteen long years of negotiations and still no decision. That was the situation when this government came to power in 2014 ... Then Prime Minister understood the loss of time and took the government-to-government (G-to-G) route for 36 aircraft, and given the limited numbers, transfer of technology made no sense,” Ms. Sitharaman told presspersons.
Calling the allegations by the Congress “shameful”, Ms. Sitharaman said they could be accused of “error of omission” for failing to finalise the deal. She said the government had decided to procure 126 fighter jets in 2000, but even by 2014, the deal could not be concluded.
While the idea was conceived in 2000, it was only in 2007 that the Request for Information (RFI), the first step in the long procurement process, was issued for the 126 aircraft under the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) deal, expected to cost around $12 billion. However, the deal got too complicated and reached a deadlock. In 2015, the NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scrapped the deal and decided to go for a government-to-government deal.
Ms. Sitharaman said the per-unit cost of the 36 jet deal was “definitely” lower than the per-unit cost under discussion by the UPA government for 126 jets. Asked for the benchmark price under the MMRCA deal, she said data would be provided.
‘No violations’
The Minister said that under the Defence Procurement Procedure, the government was “allowed to contract a friendly government and go for a government-to-government deal” to get 36 aircraft in flyaway condition at the earliest. “Not a single procedure had been violated. It is a government-to-government deal approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
In September 2016, India and France signed a €7.87-billion agreement for 36 Rafale jets in flyaway condition. The deal included aircraft, spares, weapons, maintenance and performance guarantee for five years. The deal had a 50% offset clause to be executed by Dassault and its partners.
On the offsets, she said “No offset contract has been signed so far” and added that an agreement between two companies does not require permission of the government. She was referring to the JV between Dassault and Reliance Defence to execute part of the offsets.
She repeatedly stressed that one of the major reasons for the deal was quick procurement of aircraft. As per the deal, the deliveries were scheduled between 2019 and 2022.
