The Congress party has been making allegations against the Rafale deal signed by the Narendra Modi government for quite some time. However a top Ministry of Defence official who did not want to be identified has come out saying that these allegations are baseless and the deal is indeed much better than the one signed by the Manmohan Singh led UPA government.
Earlier Congress President Rahul Gandhi attacked the Modi government saying that the cost of the aircrafts was much lower during the time of UPA government than that was negotiated now. According to reports, the Modi government has signed the deal with France for 10 million euros than the UPA government. By this agreement, India will be buying 36 advanced warplanes Under the UPA government the deal was to purchase 126 medium multi-roll compact aircraft (MMRCA). The price for the base model of one aircraft will be less compared to that of UPA government.
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A total of 36 fully operational Rafale aircrafts will be available to the Indian Army under this deal. For this, the price is fixed at 7.9 billion euros. Under the UPA government, the deal was to provide 18 aircrafts in flyaway conditions while the remaining 108 aircrafts were to be manufactured in India. Had the number been 36 during the UPA deal then the cost would have been 9.5 billion euros.
It has to be noted that Rahul Gandhi had earlier alleged that the Modi government for purchasing the aircrafts at a higher price than the UPA government. However, the figures that have emerged now has proven that these allegations were part of the political stunt by the Congress chief. The Modi government has been conducting discussions for the past one and a half years to get the aircrafts at a lower price than the previous Rafale deal. The Congress also alleged that the government has not taken prior permission of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
The official from the Ministry of Defence also made it clear that the difference in number does not matter. The aircrafts purchased by the two governments are different and that the Rafale planes obtained under the agreement signed by the NDA government have bigger wreckage than the previous contract. The weapon package is enormous. The NDA government is looking forward to manufacturing aircrafts that will be able to carry missiles that have range up to 150 kilometers. These planes will also have 13 India specific enhancements.
According to the current deal, the aircraft is priced at 91 million euros. However, according to the UPA deal, it was 99 million euros. Therefore the nation will have a benefit of 2.2 billion euros compared to the UPA regime. Most of all the army will get the aircrafts as early as possible. The officials have also made it clear that the details of the aircrafts cannot be made public due to the prevailing security tensions at the border.
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