india

Updated: Jan 02, 2019 23:44 IST

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a face-to-face debate on the controversial Rafale jet fighter deal, escalating his onslaught on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and refusing to drop demands for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the purchase.

Gandhi demanded answers from Modi to four questions he posed at a press conference, after the government on the floor of the Lok Sabha again rejected a JPC probe, saying the Supreme Court had already satisfied its “conscience” on the deal.

Gandhi wanted to know whether any objections had been raised by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to the 2016 contract for 36 Rafale fighter planes that replaced one for 126 aircraft the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) finalised but didn’t sign; whose decision it was to sign a new contract , whether it was the prime minister’s or the IAF’s, and if it wasn’t the latter’s, whether it had objected to a price increase; and why an offset deal had been given to businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group, which had never made a plane, at the expense of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which has been building planes for 70 years.

“How did Make in India become Make in France?” Gandhi asked, referring to the NDA government’s decision to buy the 36 planes in a flyaway condition from Dassault Aviation. Under the UPA-era deal, HAL was to manufacture 108 of the 126 planes in India.

“Just give me 20 minutes with the Prime Minister one-on-one on Rafale and then you decide what is what. But the Prime Minister doesn’t have the guts...,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi said the price of the Rafale aircraft was disclosed by Jaitley himself in the House when he mentioned that the entire deal was worth Rs 58,000 crore. “If you divide Rs 58,000 crore by 36, it comes to around Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft,” he said. Gandhi described Rafale as a “good” aircraft and said its capability and quality can’t be questioned.

The Shiv Sena, an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), backed Gandhi’s demand for a JPC probe of the deal. Finance minister Arun Jaitley insisted that there was no need for one, citing the Supreme Court’s December ruling on the matter. The court said there was no reason to doubt the process of procurement and ruled: “ There is no reason for interference in the choice of offset partner and perception of individuals can’t be the basis for roving inquiry in sensitive issue of defence procurement.”

Also read | ‘How much does he know?’: Jaitley’s tweet attack targets Rahul over Rafale

Gandhi took on the Prime Minister for his absence on Wednesday from the Lok Sabha, where the Congress party’s Sushmita Dev and Rajiv Satav flew paper planes as the debate raged. “It is very clear that the Prime Minister does not have the guts to come to Parliament and confront the questions,” Gandhi said. “The entire nation is asking a direct question about the Prime Minister and the entire nation is asking why the Prime Minister can speak for one-and-a-half-hour in a staged interview and not answer the fundamental questions of Rafale,” Gandhi said in an apparent reference to Modi’s interview aired on news channels on Tuesday.

The Congress president sought to dismiss Modi’s statement in the interview in which he said the allegations over the Rafale deal had not been directed at him personally but were against the government. “He [Modi] was looking tired, nervous [in the interview]. He said no one has pointed fingers at me but the whole country is pointing fingers at him,” Gandhi said.

The House witnessed drama after Gandhi sought speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s permission to play an audio clip of a purported conversation between Goa’s health minister Vishwajit Rane and an anonymous person in which he quoted former defence minister and chief minister Manohar Parrikar as having told a cabinet meeting last week that he had Rafale files in his bedroom. While Parrikar said the clip was an attempt to fabricate facts, Rane too dismissed the audio tape as “doctored”.

Jaitley said the audio was “false and fabricated” and asked Gandhi if he could authenticate it. The finance minister warned Gandhi that he may have to face a privilege motion and even expulsion in case it turned out to be fabricated.

Amid uproar, which caused a brief adjournment, Gandhi said he would not play it and authenticate it, prompting Jaitley to say that he was “scared” as he knew it was false. “This man [Gandhi] lies and lies repeatedly,” Jaitley said. The Speaker also disallowed Gandhi’s request to play the audio.

The controversy is about the NDA government’s decision to enter a $8.7-billion government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later, replacing the UPA-era agreement.

The deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is Rs 1,670 crore for each, three times the Rs 526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.

You may also like | ‘Goa tape’ spices up Rafale war between BJP and Congress

The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has previously said, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison is moot. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal till 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid. The deal has become controversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault is with the Reliance Group.

The Rafale deal was one of the Congress’s main planks in the recent round of state elections in which the Congress deposed the BJP in the key heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. It is likely to keep up the attack on the ruling party in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well. The BJP has, meanwhile, sought to corner the Congress over charges of wrongdoing in the Rs 3,600 crore deal to buy helicopters from AgustaWestland of Italy.

“I thought daal me kuch kala hai but puri daal hi kali hai,” he said, quoting a Hindi adage.” A JPC is needed as it will bring out the truth. Modiji had bypassed processes and the contract was snatched from HAL.”

Later, at a news conference at Congress headquarters, Gandhi brought up Modi saying in the interview that the charges were not being levelled against him, but his government. “Don’t know in which world he is living. Narendra Modi-ji, the questions are being raised against you and people are asking you why did you give Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani. So, I found it very interesting that the Prime Minister thinks questions are being raised on someone else.”

To be sure, the Rs 30,000 crore figure is the money that Dassault would have to spend on offset purchases from Indian component makers as part of the terms of the deal and the French plane maker has said it had chosen several offset partners besides Reliance Group.

Countering Jaitley’s assertions that the cost of the jets was enhanced due to new weapons, Gandhi said the Modi government’s defence of the deal was inconsistent. “The 2007 request for proposal (RFP) documents clearly state that direct flyaway aircraft be delivered with full complements of weapons and the weapons package was integral to the flyaway aircraft,” he said and read out the RFP that enumerated some of the weapons and equipment annexed with it. “Jaitley has a habit of telling lies one after the other, but the reality is Rafale deal was made to steal from the exchequer. Chowkidar chor hai [watchman is a thief],” he alleged. The Congress chief continued tweeting questions addressed to the PM till late on Wednesday.

Also read | To Rahul Gandhi’s jab at PM Modi over Rafale, Arun Jaitley’s counter punch