Congress and BJP Are At Loggerheads Regarding The Rafale Deal. Know How The Deal Differed In Both Regimes

The BJP accused the UPA government of irregularities in the Rafale deal back 2012.  In response, the Congress accused the NDA of a cover up in 2016 when the deal was finalized. 

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New Delhi: Congress and BJP have once again come face to face with regards to the purchase of Rafale fighter jets. As reported by Hindustan Times, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the UPA government of irregularities in the attempted deal regarding purchase of the aircrafts in 2012.  In response, the Congress accused the NDA of a cover up in 2016 when the deal was finalized. 

This topic has spanned from the time Congress-led UPA (2004-14) was in power till today when BJP-led NDA was elected in post 2014. In this post we will discuss differences between the same deal in the two different regimes, 

How does the deal differ in both the regimes?

In 2012, during the UPA government, the Indian Ministry of Defence chose French company Dassault (Dassault or Dassault) to buy 126 Rafale fighter aircraft. Under this project, 18 aircraft were to be bought directly from France and the remaining 108 were to be built in India with the help of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. At that time this agreement was named MMRCA i.e. Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft Deal. 

This deal was started in the year 2007.

The deal is said to be worth Rs 40 thousand crores when it initially started in 2007. But by 2014, its deal had reached about 80 thousand crores. Since the company kept increasing the deal price, the UPA government never sealed the deal. 

But the UPA government had never officially made public the information about the total price of this deal.

The MMRCA project was shelved in 2014 after the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. During his visit to France in April 2015, PM Modi announced purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets directly by making an inter-governmental agreement with the French government. In September 2016, then Defense Ministers of both the countries signed the deal following the Inter-Governmental Agreement. 

The cost of a Rafale aircraft is around Rs 670 crore.

In November 2016, Minister of State for Defense Subhash Rao Bhamre told Parliament in response to a question that one Rafale aircraft costs around Rs 670 crore. However, it was not clear that the price stated was just of the aircraft or whether it included weapons also. 

The Modi government never officially revealed the full price of the deal for these 36 aircraft in the public forum. But high-ranking sources associated with the Ministry of Defense say that this deal is about 59 thousand crore rupees (7.9 billion euros). According to that estimates, one aircraft would cost around Rs 1.5 crore

But if the sources of the Modi government are to be believed, then the deal that was done during the time of UPA was only for the planes and not its weapons and other equipment. Whereas in the deal signed by the Modi government, about 710 million euros (i.e. about Rs 5341 crore) has been spent on the weapons installed in the fighter planes. Also, 75 percent of the aircraft will always be operationally ready. Apart from this, such equipment was installed in these aircraft from the company that they are suitable for every climate. The cost of additional equipment of the aircraft is also included in the deal.

36 aircraft cost 3402 million euros

The full package of Rafale seems like this. The cost of 36 aircraft is 3402 million euros. The spare parts of the planes cost 1800 million euros while the cost of making them suitable for India's climate is 1700 million euros. Apart from this, the cost of performance based logistics is about 353 million euros. About 710 million euros (about 5341 crores) were spent on Rafale missiles and other weapons.

India has so far received 26 Rafale fighter jets. Of these, 18 fighter aircraft have been included in the Golden Arrow Squadron in Ambala and are deployed in the security of air-space from eastern Ladakh to Himachal Pradesh. To strengthen the air-security of the country's eastern borders, the second squadron of the Rafale fighter jet has become operationally ready in Hasimara, West Bengal. 8 aircraft have joined this squadron.

Hashimari Squadron is also known as 101 Squadron, also named as 'Falcon of Chhamb and Akhnoor'. A squadron of the Indian Air Force consists of 18 fighter aircraft. Next year i.e. by March 2022, the remaining 10 aircraft are also expected to reach India.