The Riddle over Rafale
Rafale, a Supersonic fighter plane whose speed exceeds the speed of sound has brought a thunderous noise in the Indian politics. The Congress president Rahul Gandhi took this as a weapon to poke holes in the BJP's camp. Congress vehemently alleged government of a big scam in the Deal of rafale. Congress aimed to paint an image of BJP as a corrupt party for the 2019 elections just as Congress image was painted in 2014 by the successive 2G scam, coal scam etc.
The origin of the Rafale deal traces back to 2007 when the government accepted the proposal of Airforce to buy MMRCA fighter planes in May 2011. Two planes got selected and in January 2012 government selected Dassault aviations Rafale fighter plane because of its lowest bid.
The Government talked to Dassault and asked for 126 fighter planes. Out of these 18 were off the shelf planes which means planes which the Dassault aviation would provide in ready to fly situation. The remaining 108 were to be made in India. The proposal given by Indian government to Dassault had a decisive clause that Dassault would share the technology with HAL. This enabled India to make Made in India planes.India could also use this technology to make other fighter planes in future as well. The clause also said that Dassault shall take onus of any failure of the planes Made in India. Dassaultt disagreed on this . Due to the other series of failed negotiations between Dassault and HAL and the change in government in 2014, the biggest deal of Defence since independence failed to reach final solution.
As has been a trend in the Indian politics, change of government resulted into a new Rafale deal in 2015. This is where the riddle over Rafale started.
PM Modi went to France and declared a new deal of 36 Rafale fighter planes. All these planes would be in fly away condition. It was accepted by the French government of Hollande that the money that Dassault will get, it shall invest 50% of it in India. It will be free to choose any firm to invest, finally the demand of some fighter planes was accepted but the political action started accruing.
Rafale means gust of wind and it's gust really shaked the ruling Modi government. The deal became controversial on pricing, offset clause and decision making process.
It was alleged that the government supported Anil Ambani's company Reliance Aerospace. They criticized government to ignore HCL. The fire became brighter when Hollande said that Ambani's company was government's choice although Dassault clarified that it was free to choose any firm and the choices were free from government intervention. The opposition I guess missed the point that Dassault first was free to choose any company it wanted, secondly it did not enter into joint venture just with Reliance. It has entered into joint ventures with BAIL, LMT, HCL. One of the clause of the deal also was that if 30000 crore are not spent on time, Indian government will impose penalty on Dassault. It is a theory of producer behaviour that the producer will produce with the person who has capital which is the reason why Dassault selected Reliance. Another reason why Reliance got selected was that it had a huge land near Nagpur Airport which provided good location. Since Reliance had all land, labour and entrepreneur, it was chosen. Then why is Mr Gandhi is opposing the offset clause is beyond understanding.
Supreme Court recently gave a judgement dismissing all the PIL's filled against the government regarding the scam in the rafale deal. SC said that there is no problem in the offset clause although there was a grammatical mistake from the side of Supreme Court due to which the decision of the apex court affevted. It was printed by mistake that the CAG has submitted the report to PAC in place of will be submitting.
Let's wait for the SC decision. As for now, there is no such scam in the new deal. It is possible that the new deal had cost some more dollars than the previous UPA deal. There is a difference between a costlier deal and a corrupt deal. Costlier deal could be a failure of the government in negotiating and a corrupt deal means that the government ate some dollars by showing some other price in the documents.
Congress opposition to Rafael deal is a mere frustration because the current government did not carry forward the congress Rafael deal or a genuine opposition that an able opposition should raise in a democratic setup would be clear in the coming days .
The origin of the Rafale deal traces back to 2007 when the government accepted the proposal of Airforce to buy MMRCA fighter planes in May 2011. Two planes got selected and in January 2012 government selected Dassault aviations Rafale fighter plane because of its lowest bid.
The Government talked to Dassault and asked for 126 fighter planes. Out of these 18 were off the shelf planes which means planes which the Dassault aviation would provide in ready to fly situation. The remaining 108 were to be made in India. The proposal given by Indian government to Dassault had a decisive clause that Dassault would share the technology with HAL. This enabled India to make Made in India planes.India could also use this technology to make other fighter planes in future as well. The clause also said that Dassault shall take onus of any failure of the planes Made in India. Dassaultt disagreed on this . Due to the other series of failed negotiations between Dassault and HAL and the change in government in 2014, the biggest deal of Defence since independence failed to reach final solution.
As has been a trend in the Indian politics, change of government resulted into a new Rafale deal in 2015. This is where the riddle over Rafale started.
PM Modi went to France and declared a new deal of 36 Rafale fighter planes. All these planes would be in fly away condition. It was accepted by the French government of Hollande that the money that Dassault will get, it shall invest 50% of it in India. It will be free to choose any firm to invest, finally the demand of some fighter planes was accepted but the political action started accruing.
Rafale means gust of wind and it's gust really shaked the ruling Modi government. The deal became controversial on pricing, offset clause and decision making process.
It was alleged that the government supported Anil Ambani's company Reliance Aerospace. They criticized government to ignore HCL. The fire became brighter when Hollande said that Ambani's company was government's choice although Dassault clarified that it was free to choose any firm and the choices were free from government intervention. The opposition I guess missed the point that Dassault first was free to choose any company it wanted, secondly it did not enter into joint venture just with Reliance. It has entered into joint ventures with BAIL, LMT, HCL. One of the clause of the deal also was that if 30000 crore are not spent on time, Indian government will impose penalty on Dassault. It is a theory of producer behaviour that the producer will produce with the person who has capital which is the reason why Dassault selected Reliance. Another reason why Reliance got selected was that it had a huge land near Nagpur Airport which provided good location. Since Reliance had all land, labour and entrepreneur, it was chosen. Then why is Mr Gandhi is opposing the offset clause is beyond understanding.
Supreme Court recently gave a judgement dismissing all the PIL's filled against the government regarding the scam in the rafale deal. SC said that there is no problem in the offset clause although there was a grammatical mistake from the side of Supreme Court due to which the decision of the apex court affevted. It was printed by mistake that the CAG has submitted the report to PAC in place of will be submitting.
Let's wait for the SC decision. As for now, there is no such scam in the new deal. It is possible that the new deal had cost some more dollars than the previous UPA deal. There is a difference between a costlier deal and a corrupt deal. Costlier deal could be a failure of the government in negotiating and a corrupt deal means that the government ate some dollars by showing some other price in the documents.
Congress opposition to Rafael deal is a mere frustration because the current government did not carry forward the congress Rafael deal or a genuine opposition that an able opposition should raise in a democratic setup would be clear in the coming days .
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