How Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Demolished Rahul Gandhi’s Script On The Rafale Deal 

A day after she was accused Rahul Gandhi of hiding behind the protesting members of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam amid the debate on the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took up the challenge to demolish what she said was a campaign that ignores national security interests in favour of the Congress’ “treasury security”.

In a point-by-point rebuttal to the Congress’ claims, she drove home these points:

One, the Defence Minister said that the cost of the basic aircraft under the deal signed by the Narendra Modi government was Rs 670 crores, nearly 9 per cent lower than the Rs 737 crore price tag under the United Progressive Alliance.

"The price that they are quoting for the basic aircraft would have cost Rs 737 crore, whereas our price, which we have stated in the Parliament, is at least 9 percent less," said the defence minister,” the Defence Minister said.

Two, explaining that the procurement of 36 fighters was undertaken in urgency, the minister said the government had managed to reduce the time of the delivery of the aircraft by nearly five months. She also noted that the number of flyaway aircraft was raised to 36 from 18 on the advice of the Indian Air Force and had precedence - the buying of two squadrons of MiG-23 MFs, Mirage-2000s and MiG-29s.

“Emergency purchases are always two squadrons. In 1982, when Pakistan was buying F-16s, India decided to buy two squadrons of MIG-23 MF from the erstwhile Soviet Union. In 1985 again, two squadrons of Mirage 2000 were purchased from France and in 1987, two squadrons of MIG-29 were bought,” Sitharaman claimed. "The first aircraft will be delivered in September 2019 and 36 aircraft will be delivered in the year 2022. The process of negotiation was finished in 14 months,” she added.

Three, she revealed that the Modi government had managed to get performance-based logistics support for two squadrons, which was limited to just one under the deal being negotiated by the UPA, without additional price.

"Initial performance-based logistics support was for five years for one squadron. But in our deal, the initial performance-based logistics support was for five years for two squadrons, without any additional cost," she said.

Four, she took Rahul Gandhi to task for claiming that the French President Emmanuel Macron had told him there was no secrecy clause covering the Rafale deal.

She reminded the house that in March 2018, when Macron visited India, Congress spokesperson had said that the party would not discuss the Rafale deal with him because it was India’s internal matter.

"A Congress spokesperson had said that Congress will not discuss India's defence deals with a foreign head of state, this discussion the Govt has to do with France and not us. Now on 20 July Rahul Gandhi in Parliament  said, 'I asked the French President about this secrecy pact but he denied its existence. He also told me that he has no issues in making the cost public.'  One of them is misleading the country. I want proof of this. Who is truthful?," Sitharaman asked Rahul Gandhi.

As it is now known, the French President, who had met Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit in March 2018, has said in an interview that the “deal is very sensitive. We can't reveal details because of business reasons.”

"Obviously you have competitors and we can't let them know details of the deal,” the French president had said during his visit.

The French embassy in India had also issued a statement when Rahul Gandhi made this claim for the first time, saying that the agreement signed with India “legally binds the two States to protect the classified information provided by the partner”.

And five, on the allegation of taking the deal away from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the Defence Minister asked why didn’t the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government give the VVIP helicopter deal to the Public Sector Undertaking instead of AgustaWestland, a foreign company.

Slamming Rahul Gandhi for trying to politicise the employees of HAL, she said the Modi government has given Rs 1 lakh crore worth of contracts to the company.

"I will give you the list of things we have done. Presently, following procurement orders are in the pipeline of HAL: 83 LCA Tejas fighter worth Rs. 50,000 crore, 15 combat helicopter order worth Rs. 3,000 crore, 200 carmo helicopters order worth Rs. 20,000 crore, 19 Dornier transport aircraft order worth Rs. 3,400 crore, other helicopters worth Rs. 15,000 crore, aero engines worth Rs. 8.400 crore,” she added.