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Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday sought to turn the tables around, blaming the previous Congress-led UPA regime for keeping State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) out of the Rafale fighter jet deal.
The Congress has been accusing the Narendra Modi government of ignoring the public sector unit in the manufacture of the combat aircraft, and favouring the Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence.
Sitharaman claimed the price negotiated for the Rafale by the Modi government was nine per cent cheaper than the UPA deal.
“One of the things that did not happen during the UPA was that between Dassault Aviation and HAL they could not agree on production terms. That is why they could not go together. So that speaks for which government failed in terms of getting them together,” said Sitharaman, speaking at an interaction organised by the Indian Women’s Press Corps on Tuesday.
Sitharaman was responding to questions based on Congress leader and former defence minister AK Antony’s allegations that if the UPA deal wasn’t cancelled by this government, HAL would’ve acquired the state-of-the-art technology through the transfer of technology and would’ve gained experience to manufacture fighter aircraft.
“The previous government could have done anything to strengthen HAL’s offer to ensure that HAL’s terms were appealing enough for Dassault to conclude the deal with it. So the entire issue of HAL not being chosen happened during there time.
“You (UPA) have not taken care of HAL. You have not made the terms appealing enough for HAL to bid successfully with Dassault. You have not finalised buying of Rafale aircraft for depleting squadron of IAF,” she said, stressing that questions should be posed to the Congress on HAL.
The Congress has accused the Modi government of causing a loss of ₹41,000 crore to the public exchequer by purchasing Rafale aircraft from the French government with the same configuration at thrice the price.
Responding to allegations on the pricing front, the Minister said, “We have responded saying your basic price and the basic price that I am getting at, when compared with all the escalation and other things, is 9 per cent cheaper.”
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