Abided by DAC to buy Rafale: Centre to SC

| | New Delhi
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Abided by DAC to buy Rafale: Centre to SC

Tuesday, 13 November 2018 | PNS | New Delhi

Amid raging controversy over the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal with allegation of wrongdoing, the Government on Monday stated in the Supreme Court that it abided by the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 and due approval was taken from the Defence Acquisition Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The Centre also placed in a sealed cover before the apex court the price details of 36 Rafale fighter jets which India is buying in fly-away condition from France through a Government to Government deal inked in October 2016.

The SC will take up the case on November 14. The court on October 31 had asked the Centre to place before it within 10 days the pricing details of 36 Rafale fighter jets.  In the last hearing, the Centre was reluctant to share the price details and Attorney General KK Venugopal had told a Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that pricing details of these jets were not even shared with Parliament.

The Centre made public the 16-page document titled “Details of the steps in the decision making process leading to the award of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft order,” which stated the process as laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 has been followed in procurement of the Rafale aircraft.

The document says after the Indian negotiation team submitted its report on fully-loaded Rafale jets on August 4, 2016, it was vetted by the Finance and Law Ministries within 20 days and the CCS approved the deal on August 24, 2016. The document also said the Government had no role in the selection of the Indian offset partner.

The Congress is alleging that the NDA Government nudged the French to opt for Reliance as an offset partner.  Former President Francois Hollande also said he was nudged by the Indian Government to have Reliance as a partner in the offset deal with Rafale jet manufacturer Dassault. 

The document placed before the court said the Indian Defence Ministry negotiated with their French counterparts for a year before signing the Rafale agreement.  The details of the documents were shared with the petitioners as directed by the Supreme Court.

The petitioners include former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, along with activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan.  They had sought registration of an FIR into the fighter jet deal alleging “criminal misconduct” by high public functionaries. The trio has also sought a direction to the CBI to investigate the offences mentioned in their complaint in a “time-bound” manner and submit periodic status reports to the apex court.

A team of Indian negotiators formed to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets had got a better deal on price and maintenance of the planes as compared to the earlier offer from French firm Dassault, according to the Centre’s report on the purchase of the jets submitted to the Supreme Court last month.

The Indian negotiating team headed by a Deputy Chief of Air Staff rank officer carried out negotiations for over a year. This team submitted its report in July 2016 and the deal was cleared by the Cabinet Committee of Security and Defence Acquisition Council.  India is buying 36 jets off the shelf from France and the entire lot will be delivered within 67 months after the contract was signed. 

The Rafale fighter jet is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA).  The UPA regime was negotiating for a 126-jet deal with Dassault with 18 of them to be procured off the shelf and the remaining to be manufactured by the public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) I India.

However, the proposed contract could not mature due to various issues and the NDA Government scrapped the earlier process and announced to buy 36 Rafales to meet the urgent requirement of the IAF to bolster its depleting squadron strength.

However, the Congress is claiming that price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is Rs 1,670 crore each, three times the Rs 526 crore, initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft.

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