An explainer on Rafale deal

Описание: What is Rafale and why this chaos over the aircraft. Is there really a scam? Why is the opposition demanding the resignation of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ?

Timeline :

2007: A proposal to buy Medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) is sent from Air Force to government. Tenders for 126 MMRCA fighters are issued by Indian government in 2007.

August 28, 2007: Dassault places its bid for Rafale along with other bidders.

September 4, 2008: Mukesh Ambani led Reliance group incorporated a new company named Reliance Aerospace Technologies Ltd. (RATL).

May 2011: Air Force shortlists Rafale and Eurofighter jets.

January 2012: The bids are finally opened. Rafale comes up with the lowest bid. According to conditions 126 jets were required, out of which 18 fighters were to be imported in a fly-away condition. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) was supposed to manufacture the remaining 108 jets with assistance from Dassault.

March 13, 2014: Workshare agreement between HAL and Dassault Aviation is signed.

UPA DEAL: The Congress party claims that it had negotiated a deal with price of Rs 526.1 crore per jet but whether Dassault agreed to deliver the jets with India could not be known because the UPA deal never went through.

NDA DEAL
March 28, 2015: Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence was incorporated.

April 10, 2015: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Paris in April and announces government's decision to buy 36 Rafale fighters in flyaway condition.

December 2015: Reliance entertainment invests 1.6 million euros in a movie co-produced by French president Hollande's partner Julie Gayet. According to French publication Mediapart, the investment was made by an investment fund of a Frenchman who has known Ambani for 25 years.

January 2016: French President François Hollande visits India on the occasion of Republic Day, a memorandum of understanding on the purchase of Rafale jets is signed.

September 2016: India and France sign the final deal for 36 Rafale jets for approximately Rs 59000 crores.

October 3, 2016: Anil Ambani's RDL and Dassault Aviation announce a joint venture. Under the contract, Dassault was mandated to make compensation investments (offsets) in India worth 50% of the value of the purchase.

September 2018: French publication Mediapart interviews former French president Hollande, who says that he had no choice in selecting the Indian offset partner and name of Reliance was given by Indian side. Dassault Aviation issues statement claiming it was Dassault's decision to choose Reliance.

Now when the current government is being asked about the price of per rafale fighter, they aren’t disclosing it on the pretext of the secrecy clause vis-à-vis security of the country.

Before you wash your brains by reading articles from different news portals (Mostly funded by BJP/Congress; also pro at providing biased news)

Ask yourself the question because we at DNL don’t believe in imposing our thoughts and ideologies on our readers. So, is it justified that the project was snatched from HAL and given to Anil Ambani, who happens to be close to the prime minister, Narendra Modi.

The questions many are asking and i will ask it here. If the Indian Air Force required 126 planes and now that number has been reduced to 36 planes have you explained how that decision was made.

The whole deal was so delayed becuase we have been saying for years that India does not make its defence technology and we keep buying. This was the debate that began in the 2000’s and continued and we started making steps to make sure it is part of every defence deal. Now when was this decision reversed from HAL being the partner and if you had no say in it then why did you not have a say. Why was India so weak in front of a french company.

The old deal was scrapped and a brand new deal was floated, then why we did not have a tender again.

When in 2012 India had decided on Rafale there was clear announcement that how much money we are spending on the planes. It was around 670 Crores per plane but now when the price has almost tripled in 6 years can you please atleast tell us why. Our salaries haven’t gone up three times or the cost of metal and technology hasn’t then why the weapon system.

You signed the deal with France on April 10th and just fifteen days before that on March 25th Reliance created this Defence company and in 15 days they got a contract of 30,000 crores. Can you please explain this? There is no secrecy involved in this as part of an international contract.

Where right wing groups are fighting against the slogans used by JNU students, isn’t it anti national on their part not to create jets in collaboration with HAL when it could have been much cheaper than what it is now.

Why was cheaper option rejected ? Is it justified that a large chunk of questions are yet to be fully answered ?