New Delhi, Feb 7 (IANS) The Narendra Modi government on Wednesday termed the allegations being made in the Rafale fighter jet deal as “unfounded”, and claimed “serious damage” was being caused by the “misleading statements”.

The statement also said that expectations to reveal the price of Rafale aircraft under the deal is “unrealistic”.

The response ccmes on a day when Congress members protested as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking in the Lok Sabha, displaying placards questioning the deal and demanding clarification from the Prime Minister.

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament building later, Congress President Rahul Gandhi alleged corruption in the deal, and demanded the government should make its details public. However, on Monday, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told Parliament that the deal’s details cannot be disclosed as per an Inter Governmental Agreement as it is “classified information”.

In the statement on Wednesday, the government said: “Unfounded allegations are being made regarding the 2016 Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) to procure 36 Rafale aircraft in fly-away condition from France.

“This would normally not have merited a response but for the serious damage being caused by the misleading statements, sought to be repeatedly perpetrated on a serious matter of national security.”

It said that it was under the UPA’s ten-year tenure that the 2002 initiative “to meet requirement of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for much-needed augmentation of its fighter strength ran aground” as the then Defence Minister “exercised an unprecedented personal veto on the laid down institutional process then underway for procurement of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA)”.

“All this happened when there was an alarming decline in IAF’s fighter strength,” it said.

Noting that in an effort to “twist facts”, the government is now being asked why it did not conduct negotiations with a particular company representing a competing fighter aircraft, the statement said that the previous government had itself rejected that “company’s unsolicited offer made days after closure of the bid process, declared Rafale (DA) as the L1 bidder and had commenced negotiations with it in February 2012”.

“The demand that the Government disclose the details and value of the contract for the Rafale aircraft contracted in 2016 is unrealistic,” it said, adding that in keeping with confidentiality requirements, the UPA Government had also expressed its inability to disclose the price of various defence procurements, including in its responses to Parliament Questions.

“The approximate acquisition cost of the Rafale aircraft has already been provided to the Parliament. Provision of exact item-wise cost and other information will reveal, inter alia, details regarding the various customisations and weapons systems specially designed to augment the effectiveness and lethality of the assets, impact our military preparedness and compromise our national security,” the statement said.

It said such details would also come under the ambit of the security agreement signed with France in 2008 by the UPA and the present government was following it only.

The statement reiterated that the deal secured by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is better in terms of capability, price, equipment, delivery, maintenance, training, than that “notionally negotiated” by the UPA in a process it could not conclude in ten years.

“Moreover, the present government completed these negotiations in just about one year,” it said, stressing that the deal was as per ruled and procedures.

The statement added that unlike the claims made by the Opposition, the earlier deal that was being negotiated in the UPA tenure did not have any provision for Transfer of Technology either.

It also said that no Indian Offset Partner for the 2016 deal for 36 Rafale Aircraft has been so far selected by the vendor (Dassault Avaition) as under the guidelines, it is free to select the Indian partners and provide their details at the time of seeking offset credits, or one year prior to discharge of offset obligation.

Congress has alleged that there are irregularities in the deal, claiming the 36 fighter jets are being bought at a price higher than what was negotiated in the previous MMRCA deal under which 126 fighter jets were to be bought.

The party, as well as some other opposition parties had also sought disclosure of price being paid in the present deal.

–IANS
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