In April 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the purchase of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French president Francois Hollande during his visit to the country. A deal was finalised when Hollande visited New Delhi to participate in the Republic Day celebrations in January 2016.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, when in power, was negotiating with Dassault Aviation for 126 Rafale aircraft. Of these, 18 jets were to be supplied in a fly-away condition and 108 were to be manufactured in India along with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). However, the UPA could not seal the deal due to differences with Rafale-maker Dassault.

Since the past one year, the Congress has been accusing the Modi government of compromising with national security by reducing the number of aircraft being procured and favouring Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence over state-owned HAL. A statement by former French President Francois Hollande, Dassault’s rebuttal to it and the French government's denial have complicated the issue further.

Here are six questions, the answers to which can solve the mystery:

1) Why did the Modi government buy 36 Rafale jets instead of 126 that the Congress-led UPA decided to procure?

By the time Modi came to power, the negotiations with Dassault for the procurement of Rafale had stalled due to disagreements between the company and HAL over the production of the aircraft in India. The Indian Air Force (IAF), on the other hand, had only around 33 squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42, which it needs to deal with a two-front threat. The number is now down to 31. Therefore, the IAF needed fighters urgently to plug the gaps developing in its capability due to depleting numbers. Negotiating a deal which involved transfer of technology and production of the aircraft in India would have taken considerably long time.

Moreover, if such a deal was negotiated, the HAL would have been required to develop the infrastructure needed for producing the aircraft in India. This too would have taken some time, delaying the procurement further.

Hence, the government decided to go ahead with 36.

The fact that the Indian Air Force has already kick-started the process to procure additional aircraft, most of which will be built in India, gives credence to the government’s claim that buying 36 Rafales was an emergency measure.

Questions have also been raised over the government’s ability to buy 126 Rafales because of the high cost of the aircraft. A K Antony, who was the defence minister in the Congress-led UPA government, had once said that the government did not have sufficient funds to buy 126 Rafales.