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This story is from January 18, 2019

Govt rejects Congress charges on Rafale deal, says media report 'factually inaccurate'

The government on Friday rejected the media report which was cited by the Congress to target it over the Rafale deal as "factually inaccurate" and said it would be best to await the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which has been given access to all the files relating to the contract.
News article on Rafale deal is factually inaccurate: Ministry of Defence
Rafale (Photo: Dassault Aviation)
Key Highlights
  • Media report compared "price of 2007 with the price of 2016 without considering the escalation factors inherent in the price bid": Defence ministry
  • The article is factually inaccurate. It does not adduce any new argument. All the issues have been answered in detail by the government at various fora: Defence ministry spokesperson
NEW DELHI: The government on Friday rejected the media report which was cited by the Congress to target it over the Rafale deal as "factually inaccurate" and said it would be best to await the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which has been given access to all the files relating to the contract.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today cited the report to allege that the NDA government had wronged the country by reducing the number of aircraft bought under the Rafale deal as it "denied" the IAF the jets it "desperately" needed.
The Congress also accused the government of giving a "windfall" to Dassault Aviation by paying more per aircraft.

The media report claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of 126 as negotiated by the previous UPA government, while bypassing mandated procedures pushed the price of each aircraft up by 41.42 per cent.
The defence ministry rebutted the allegations saying the report compared "price of 2007 with the price of 2016 without considering the escalation factors inherent in the price bid". The UPA government had started the process of procuring the jets in 2007.
"The article is factually inaccurate. It does not adduce any new argument. All the issues have been answered in detail by the government at various fora and most recently by the Raksha Mantri in an open debate in Parliament," a ministry spokesperson said.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley also rejected the charges in a series of tweets.


Citing the newspaper report, Chidambaram had alleged, "The government has wronged the country in two ways - firstly, it has compromised national security by denying to the Air Force 90 fighter aircraft that they desperately need.
"Secondly, it has purchased two squadrons that will cost about €25 million more per aircraft. At the 2016 exchange rate, euro 25 million is equal to Rs 186 crore. India will pay Rs 186 crore more per aircraft."
Rejecting the Congress's charges, BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani said the opposition party's "malicious campaign has been exposed" as she noted the Supreme Court verdict on the matter and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman's over 90-minute reply in Parliament.
Irani said those who are on bail are running a false propaganda in a dig at Rahul Gandhi and Chidambaram.
"The Congress' game of running a malicious campaign on this issue and abandoning national interest for their own politics has been exposed," she said.
"The Supreme Court has spoken on it, the defence minister has spoken on it ... for those who use this for their own political ends, yeh public hai, sab janti hai (the public knows it all)," Irani said.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury alleged, "Modi's sudden announcement in Paris, to buy only 36 Rafale jets, not 126 that the Air Force wanted, violated all procedure. But it also compromised India's national security and increased the price by 41%! That is why Modi has been running scared of sharing details."
He said the CPM had long demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the deal but the government had blocked all such efforts.
"It is crystal clear now, and no amount of spin will help," the CPM leader said.
End of Article
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