Rafale!! Most Indian people hear this name in the news, right!! Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leader are accusing that Modi government is buying these planes costlier than what UPA government was going to buy!!! But, they didn’t buy right?? And another thing, they are claiming that PM Modi forced Dassault to do contract with Anil Ambani’s Reliance defense for partnering in this project. Are they having any proof?? Also, some people are sharing information without knowing what Rafale and the deal is. Are these allegations true? Let’s see the history of Rafael and why Congress didn’t buy and what are their allegations.
Rafale!! Rafale is a French word it means “gust of wind”
Some people asked why we are buying Rafale instead of buying F-16. F-16 is not that good as Rafale. Rafale is best of dogfight i.e. close combat and its fuel consumption lesser than F-16. More importantly, US was not ready to share its technology with India but France is ready to share its technology and also ready to build Rafael in India with the Indian company. Rafale is far better than F-16. There was another competitor for this plane, which is Eurofighter. Eurofighter’s production will be stopping in 2020 and it has lots of technical problems. Rafale is better in dogfighting and bombing purpose. Though Eurofighter still good jet but Rafale is cheaper and easy to maintain.
The first deal was done during UPA reign. Congress has been raising allegations that per aircraft price cost during Modi government is costlier than per aircraft price during the UPA government. Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged that per aircraft price cost India 500 cores. On numerous times, he quoted 5 different aircraft prices. So, you see, he even doesn’t know the exact price of aircraft and he has been accusing Modi government of scam!! When he was in France, some reporter asked,” what is your opinion on Rafel deal? Is there any scam or not?” And he replied,” I don’t have much information about this deal. I can’t make any statement.” So, on what basis he is making allegation?? He doesn’t know about the plane; its exact cost and he is making an allegation. Even the Indian Air Force dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s claims of a “scam” in the Rafael deal and called it a “much better deal” than the one negotiated by the Congress party. The Air Force told the Modi government’s deal is 40 percent cheaper than the Congress deal, which was being negotiated since 2008 and was not able to be completed. Also, Rafale’s French manufacturer Dassault Aviation’s CEO Eric Trappier too reject Rahul’s allegations.
Another allegation made by Rahul Gandhi was Prime Minister of forcing Dassault to select Reliance as an offset partner rather than selecting HAL. But this is not true. Over 100 other Indian companies are offset partners with Dassault and HAL has not that capacity to manufacture around 108 aircraft within a certain time. Because HAL needs 2.7 times higher man-hours as compared to the French side for the manufacture of Rafale aircraft in India.
The main question still arises by seeing these congress allegations on Rafael plane. If the Congress deal was better then why didn’t they finalize it and buy it when it was being negotiated since 2008?? I think the main reason behind delaying the deal was Dassault did not agree to give benefits to a defense dealer linked to Robert Vadra, Rahul’s brother-in-law.
Now we get the full picture behind these controversies!!! He is deviating the issue. Rahul Gandhi said during the press conference that Government should disclose the details in public. Is he high?? This is national security related issue and disclosing the information would impact military preparedness and compromise national security. And UPA government signed security agreement in 2008 with France. So, he doesn’t know about this or he knows but tries to make some allegation to keep himself in the news.
All the information has been shared with SC so I don’t think there is necessary to share this information in public. Nations security comes first. I think Congress who ruled this country over 60 years has forgotten or just try to make a desperate attempt to come into power again!!! This is just a dirty game of politics, nothing more than that!! Time will show who is real the CULPRIT!!
