Controversy over Rafale
There is a deep controversy over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision
to go in for an outright purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jet aircraft. The
government needs to address three questions: The first is the rationale for the
announcement made by Modi, during his official visit to France, in April 2015,
that India would buy 36 Rafale aircraft. The second question relates to
pricing. The Modi government
announced that it had obtained a 50%
offset undertaking which would give a boost (nearly ₹30,000 crore) to the ‘Make
in India’ programme in the defence sector. The third question relates to the
offset share given to Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd, or DRAL (a 51:49 joint
venture between Reliance Aerostructure Ltd and the Dassault Group). The
Congress has cited ₹30,000 crore while the Dassault Chairman, Eric Trappier,
has stated that the figure is 10% of it as it has signed offset partnerships
with more than 30 other Indian partners and the choice of Indian partners was its
independent decision.
In a democracy, people have the final right to ask for details of
expenditure that government incurs on whatever project where public funds are
involved. If Congress think that they could have bought these aircraft at cheaper
cost then why didn’t they take a decision at that time? Why they kept this
decision prolonging?
In India objective thinking is lacking. A BJP supporter will say that
Rakesh Sood is a congress man and a congress supporter will say that Modi
should resign. But one thing is certain. Indians cannot get along together as a
single entity for a long time. A person who loves his nation will be left with
a sense of despair and gloom as to the very low honesty, integrity and desire
to keep this nation strong among the politicians - both in the government and
opposition. It is high time India concentrates on equipping the parliament with
high quality politicians. Can we look to any country to supply fast on a
government to government agreement without the opposition crying 'thief' there
also?
The whole story of Rafale reminds us of a saying that a law is made
primarily for the benefit of lawmakers themselves. If we examine how an almost
finalized deal was undermined and replaced by an obscure and unreasonable one,
facilitated by government decisions at different levels, this point becomes
clear. The government should come clean to assuage these doubts. Also the dire
consequences of tardiness in acquiring/manufacturing aircraft for India's
security needs is very disturbing.
Rakesh Sood is having trouble in extricating himself from his loyalty to
the Congress. Having been the Ambassador to France under Manmohan Singh he
surely must know a lot more about the Rafale deal that the UPA tried to
negotiate and failed. He has omitted a few key facts. There was a built in
annual price appreciation clause in the Dassault offer that was accepted by the
then UPA government. The original price quoted was also for the older model
Rafale. Sood also contradicts himself by first lamenting about the high cost
and slow deliveries of the Tejas from HAL and later claiming that the Make In
India program has been a casualty in the Rafale deal. Anybody with even
rudimentary knowledge of our fighter aircraft manufacturing skills would know
that we are nowhere near making a state of the art aircraft like Rafale. And
should it happen in the future it will only materialize in our private sector.
Not HAL. Both Dassault and the IAF know that very well.
The motive is to focus on an imaginary "controversary" aimed at
the government of India and Mr. Anil Ambani, but visibly ignore the delays in
decision making process by then defence minister during UPA II regime led by
Congress and allies.
No comments:
Post a Comment