On the penultimate day of the winter session of Parliament, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday continued their war of words over the fate of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) inside and outside Parliament.
Ms. Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha that contracts amounting to ₹26,570.80 crore has been signed with HAL between 2014 and 2018 and orders worth approximately ₹73,000 crore were in the pipeline. She, then, accused Mr. Gandhi “raising incorrect and misleading doubts’ over her earlier statement.
Almost immediately, the Congress chief stepped up his attack, repeating his charge that the Defence Minister had ‘clearly lied’ to Parliament and accused the government of deliberately weakening HAL to benefit the Anil Ambani group.
In a separate press interaction, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Mr. Gandhi of ‘raising the bogey of Rafale’ for ‘pure commercial interests’ to promote a competitor.
Suo moto statement
After Mr. Gandhi had tweeted on Sunday asking Defence Minister to show the documents to back her claim of the Modi government supporting HAL with contracts worth ₹1 lakh crore or resign, Ms. Sitharam made a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha to clarify the exact position.
“Doubts are being raised on my statement made on the floor of the House on January 4 regarding procurement orders in the pipeline for HAL... I would like to set all doubts to rest by adding that I have received confirmation from HAL that during 2014-2018, contracts amounting to ₹26,570.80 crore have already been signed with HAL and orders approximately of ₹73,000 crore are in the pipeline,” the Minister said.
“I had specifically mentioned that there are 83 LCA Tejas fighters ordered worth ₹50,000 crore, 15 combat helicopters worth ₹3,000 crore, 200 more helicopters worth ₹20,000 crore, 19 Dornier transport aircraft worth ₹3,400 crore, helicopters worth ₹15,000 crore, and aero-engines worth ₹8,400 crore. All of them put together amount to ₹1 lakh crore,” she added.
Reacting to her statement, Mr. Gandhi told reporters that the Defence Minister had changed her statement of giving ₹1 lakh crore contracts to HAL.
“We challenged that and in today’s statement she said ₹26,570 crore have been given to HAL. This means that Nirmala Sitharaman- ji clearly lied in Parliament,” he said.
Paid ahead
He also asked why the government paid Dassault Aviation ₹20,000 crore as advance inspite of not receiving a single aircraft whereas HAL has not been paid ₹15,700 crore despite delivering aircraft and helicopters.
"The strategy of the government is — weaken HAL, do not give it money, destroy India’s strategic capability and give the ‘gift’ to Anil Ambani. That is the plan and that is what we are trying to thwart,” Mr. Gandhi said.
The Congress chief once again dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a one-on-one debate for 15 minutes and said the government had evaded answering his specific question.
“I ask Narendra Modi- ji and Nirmala Sitharaman- ji that when the PM had done a bypass surgery and prepared a new contract of 36 aircraft, did the senior Defence Ministry and Air Force officials object to Narendra Modi’s interference. Yes or No,” he asked.
Middleman at work
In a new line of attack against the Congress, the Union Law Minister cited a document in the public domain that claimed that Christian Michel, the alleged middlemen in the AgustaWestland deal currently in custody, was also working with Eurofighter, a competitor to DassultAviation, to change the contract for the fighter aircraft.
“Why is it that the leading family namely the Gandhi family appear in documents after documents, be it the AgustaWestland, be it the Air Force fighter planes for Rafale and their competitor Eurofighter,” Mr. Prasad said.
