Is Rafale Deal the Biggest Defence Scam of Narendra Modi Government in the World ?

Is Rafale Deal the Biggest Defence Scam of Narendra Modi Government in the World? Now a days in News, we see controversy surrounding Rafale deal, here we will discuss regarding it and a timeline relating to India's purchase of 36 combat jets from France for an estimated INR 58,000 Crore.

Modi Government try to cover up issue of Rafale Deal by running fake news on TV Media so public catch wrong information as he done in last 4 year. PM Modi done 2 big mistakes in this country: 1) Demonetization and 2) Rafale Scam. Both are biggest failure of government. Public are smart enough now a days so they scan all information first then enter in their mind specially if news related to PM Narendra Modi. So PM Modi lost faith of public by Rafale Deal.

Rafale Deal is a job of Defence Ministry as per Constitution but it runs and operates by PM Modi so again violation of rules of constitution. In fact PM Modi is master in break rules of constitution and he did not care about it and that’s the reason he is out of mind of people slowly slowly.

What was the deal of Congress Government?

India began the process to buy a fleet of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMCRA) in 2007 after the defence ministry, headed then by Congress leader A K Antony, cleared the proposal from the Indian Air Force (IAF). The contenders for the mega-deal were Lockheed Martin's F-16s, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russian MIG-35, Sweden's Gripen, Boeing's F/A-18s and Dassault Aviation's Rafale.

After a long process, bids were opened in December 2012 and Dassault Aviation emerged as L1 (lowest bidder). In the original proposal, 18 planes were to be manufactured in France and 108 in India in collaboration with the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. There were lengthy negotiations between the then Congress government and Dassault on prices and transfer of technology. The final negotiations continued till early 2014 but the deal could not go through.

Details of the negotiated price per Rafale deal were not officially announced, but it was suggested by the then Congress government that the size of the deal would be $10.2 billion. The Congress claimed that per aircraft rate including avionics and weapons was zeroed in at INR 526 crore.

After that 2014 Loksabha election happened and Modi Government comes in power. Modi already hated congress and treated as enemy so he did not even see what was the deal done by congress and why it was not completed? Because PM Modi on Cloud 9 during 2014.

What was the deal finalised by Modi government?

During PM Modi visit to France on April 10, 2015, he announced India will purchase 36 Rafale jets in a government-to-government agreement as per his arrogant belief. Under this deal, Dassault and its main partners - engine-maker Safran and electronic systems-maker Thales - will share some technology with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and some private sector companies and HAL under the offsets clause. After the announcement, questions were raised by the Opposition on how the PM finalised the deal without the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security.

A joint statement issued on April 10, 2015, after talks between Modi and then French President François Hollande, said they agreed to conclude an Inter-Governmental Agreement for supply of 36 Rafale jets on terms that would be better than conveyed by Dassault Aviation as part of a separate process underway.

The statement said the "aircraft and associated systems and weapons would be delivered on the same configuration as had been tested and approved by Indian Air Force, in clear reference to negotiations and testing process for the Rafale jets under the Congress government.

What was the Final deal?

India and France signed Euro 7.87-billion (INR 59,000 crore approximately) deal on September 23, 2016 for 36 Rafale jets. Additionally, an accompanying offset clause was sealed through which France will invest 30 per cent of the 7.8 billion Euros in India's military aeronautics-related research programmes and 20 per cent into local production of Rafale components.

The delivery of the aircraft will start from September 2019.The deal was finalised on the basis of the procurement procedure followed under the Congress government. PM Modi even did not say why only 36 Rafale jet instead of 126 jet as per requirement of Indian Air Force. So all Opposition and specially Congress smell up corruption in deal and asked Modi to discuss all details about deal but he refused as usual.

Massive Allegations against PM Modi on Rafale Deal?

The Congress has been accusing massive irregularities in the deal, alleging that the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over INR 1,670 crore as against INR 526 crore finalised by the Congress government. The party has also demanded answers from the government on why state-run aerospace major HAL was not involved in the deal but Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman denied to answer and said that it was a secret and could not disclose.

The Congress has also sought to know price details of the aircraft and how the rate per aircraft has gone up from INR 526 crore to INR 1,670 crore. The government has refused to share the details, citing a secrecy clause of a 2008 pact between India and France. But from France side they cleared that no any secrecy agreement done and it should open in case of countries defence term so BJP and Modi Government fully exposed.

Congress' A K Antony, who was defence minister in 2008 when India and France inked an inter-governmental agreement on defence procurement, said the government's claim that the secrecy clause was forcing it to not reveal price details of the deal was "totally wrong".

The Congress party claimed that Qatar had purchased 12 Rafale fighter jets in November 2017 for $108.33 million per aircraft (INR 694.80 crore).

The Congress has also alleged the government was benefitting the Reliance Defence Ltd (RDL) through the deal as the company has set up a joint venture with Dassault Aviation to execute the offset obligation for the INR 59,000 crore deal. Congress made right allegations to Anil Ambani because everyone knows Modi always looks for benefit of Industrialists and he helped so much to Mukesh Ambani for JIO ( To change black money to white money) and now it turns of Anil Ambani so this all Scam done by Modi for Reliance only.

The party alleged Reliance Defence was formed just 12 days before the announcement of the Rafale deal by the prime minister on April 10, 2015. The RDL has rejected all the charges. Under India's offset policy, foreign defence entities are mandated to spend at least 30 per cent of the total contract value in India through procurement of components or setting up of research and development facilities.

On October 3, 2016, RDL and Dassault Aviation announced a joint venture (JV) in the aerospace sector and a year later, foundation stone of a manufacturing facility was laid in Mihan, Nagpur.

What was the Government's response after exposed by Congress Party?

Around two years back, Minister of State for Defence, while replying to a question in Parliament, had said the cost of each Rafale aircraft is approximately INR 670 crore but did not give details of prices of associated equipment, weapons and services.

Later, the government refused to talk about the prices. It has been maintaining that the cost of 36 Rafale jets cannot be "directly compared" with the original proposal to buy 126 combat aircraft as "deliverables" were significantly different.

Here we can see the arrogance of ruling party. They even did not have sensitivity towards indian public who wants to know reality of Rafale Deal.

PM Modi is bypassing procedure & Violate rules of Constitution

Generally PM is not the authority to announce defence deal. It has to come from MoD and moreover deal can’t be announce till it is finalised. Opposition leader P Chidambram alleges that”Deal was announced There is a defence procurement procedure that was completely bypassed. There was a Contract Negotiation Committee that never met for this deal. There is a Price Negotiation Committee which was never called to meet.” ^[2]

Still Unclarity in cost of Aircraft

Congress claims that their deal was much cheaper than that of what NDA negotiated. As per Congress their price for single was INR 600 crore as against INR 1600 crore of Modi Government.

What is the solutions of this problem??

The NDA government should understand the nonsensical demand and came with a practical solution: Form a JV with Indian Defence Firm. By forming JV, Dessault could control ToT and take care of deliveries. Modi should avoid bidding and do government to government deal. Government to government deal are generally cheaper than bidding process.This is a practical deal for both Government and Rafale.

My Views:

I believe that Reliance ADAG would have involved in the deal and operated as per Modi’s advice. Even Ex France President Hollande revealed that Narendra Modi told us to give contract to Anil Ambani group.

I also believe that government shouldn’t have gone for 36 Rafale jet only. It should have been 128 or 0 for transparency to public.

Creating infrastructure for only 36 Rafale is just useless because Indian Air Force need more jet and we could not compromise for our nation security. With falling squadron, 36 will not do any good. We practically have 25 squadrons with MiG 21 and MiG 27 on life support system. In next 5–6 years we need at least 270 more aircrafts to fulfil IAF’s need.

By 2030, Mirage 2000, Jaguar and MiG 29 would be obsolete and Su 30 would need midlife upgrades. We need proper planning so that we induct more aircrafts from lesser OEMs and promote indignation of force.

At least for security of our country we must not do any politics. Let’s follow Constitution for Better & Bright India.