There was no Rafale deal under UPA: Defence ministry sources

The original deal to procure 126 fighter jet could not go through during the UPA rule despite reaching the final stage as the then Defence Minister A K Antony felt there was something wrong in the process and asked for a review, defence ministry sources claimed.

The sources talked about Antony's intervention while asserting that there was no deal arrived at during the UPA regime to procure 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).

The Congress has been ramping up attack on the government over the Rafale issue, claiming that the deal negotiated under its rule was much cheaper then the contract signed by the Modi government to procure 36 Rafale fighter jets from France at a cost of Rs 58,000 crore.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The sources said Antony's apprehensions may have been genuine and he may have had bonafide reasons for such an intervention. The price negotiating committee was at that time examining the deal after initially getting approval for it from the then defence minister.

The sources also said that the Eurofighter Typhoon had offered to bring down their prices by 25 per cent after Rafale was declared L1 vendor.

"Such a proposal after declaring the winning bidder was not at all acceptable as per laid down procedure. You cannot do that," said a source.

Alleging a "scam", the opposition Congress has been asking the government whether the per aircraft price of Rafale, according to international bids opened on December 12, 2012, comes to USD 80.95 million (Rs 526.1 crore) as against the Modi government's per aircraft negotiated price of USD 241.66 Million (Rs 1,570.8 crore) as per current exchange rates.

The UPA government floated a tender in 2007 for purchase of 126 MMRCA for the Air Force and, post negotiations, two of them--Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon -- remained in the reckoning.

However, the deal could not be finalised by the UPA regime.

Asked why NDA government did not go for Eurofighter Typhoon as it had offered a 25 per cent price cut, the sources said several European countries were involved in manufacturing of Eurofighter and France was preferred for the inter- governmental deal.

The Congress president, on Friday, called out Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Twitter and said: "You said the UPA never released prices of Defence purchases? To nail your lie, here are 3 Parliamentary replies by the UPA with full transparency on pricing. Now do ask our Raksha Mantri to tell India how much each RAFALE jet cost."

With that, he attached screenshots of documents - one dated 9 August 2010 titled "Aircraft Carrier Admiral Gorshkov" and another 4 March 2013 titled "Upgradation of Aircraft" - by the Ministry of Defence.

The sources said the rates cannot be compared as price depended on the weapons package.

In a detailed statement, the defence ministry had on Wednesday termed as "unfounded" allegations made by the Congress about the Rs 58,000-crore deal, asserting that the demand to disclose details such as its value was "unrealistic" as doing so might compromise India's national security.

It had said giving an item-wise cost and other information would reveal details about weapons systems and customisation of the jet.

The ministry had said that in 2012, the then defenceminister exercised an unprecedented personal veto on the laid down institutional process then underway for the procurement of 126 jets.