Ready to face questions on Rafale deal: Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Parliament session from Monday, the NDA government has once again slammed the Congress for levelling baseless allegations against the Rs 59,000 crore contract for 36 French Rafale fighters, stressing it was not a scam like the Bofors one that brought down the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1989.
“I will welcome it (If the Congress brings up the Rafale deal in Parliament). We are ready,” said defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Saturday, while adding the government had also put its full weight behind ramping up the production of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft.
Asked whether the Rafale controversy could derail IAF’s fighter acquisition plans, much like the Bofors scandal ensured the Army could not induct a single modern 155mm howitzer for over 30 years, Sitharaman said, “Bilkul nahi hoga (it will not happen). Don’t even compare it with the Bofors case. There is no scam here.”
The Congress has alleged the “non-transparent” Rafale deal was vastly overpriced, violated defence procurement procedures, included no transfer of technology, and was intended to benefit the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Defence as the “offsets partner” of the French fighter manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
Strongly rejecting these allegations, the NDA government says it secured a “better deal” in terms of price, capability, equipment, delivery and maintenance than the one “notionally being negotiated” by the previous UPA regime for 126 Rafale jets under the nowscrapped MMRCA project.
In the backdrop of IAF grappling with just 31 fighter squadrons, when 42 are required to face the “collusive threat” from China and Pakistan, Sitharaman said the government was “putting all its energies” into making defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd deliver the Tejas fighter at a much faster pace.
The government had sanctioned Rs 1,381 crore for this in March 2017. “We are not ditching the Tejas. We want it both for ourselves (IAF) as well as export to other countries.
They (HAL) have to increase their production from the existing six to eight Tejas per year. We also want the Tejas Mark-2 at the earliest,” said the minister. The Tejas is still not combat-ready despite its developmental project being approved way back in 1983 to replace the aging MiG-21s.
The IAF has also begun the process to order another 83 Tejas Mark-1A fighters, at a cost of over 50,000 crore, from HAL.