As Rafale jets start arriving, India warns those who covet its land

As the first five of the 36 Rafale fighter jets it is procuring from the Dassault Aviation company of France arrived on Wednesday, India sent out a tacit message to China and Pakistan, saying whoever covets its territory should be worried about its new warbirds.

The five aircraft landed at the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Ambala in Haryana a little more than four hours after they took off from Al Dhafra air base of United Arab Emirates (UAE). The fighter jets had taken off from Bordeaux-Merignac airbase in France last Monday and had a stopover at the airbase in Abu Dhabi before flying to Ambala on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to welcome the new fighter aircraft, which started arriving amid China’s aggressive moves to alter the status quo along the disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh. He posted a ‘shloka’ in Sanskrit, which meant “no vow is holier and no deed is greater than protecting the nation”. “Touch the sky with glory. Welcome,” he tweeted along with a video of the landing of the aircraft.

The new fighter aircraft are being inducted to the recently resurrected 17 Golden Arrows squadron of the IAF.

“The Birds have landed safely in Ambala. The touch down of Rafale combat aircrafts in India marks the beginning of a new era in our Military History. These multirole aircrafts will revolutionise the capabilities of the @IAF_MCC,” tweeted Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

New Delhi is worried as the Indian Army last week reported that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has not yet withdrawn troops from some of the face-off scenes in eastern Ladakh, where the communist country’s unilateral move to change the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two nations resulted in a stand-off. The soldiers of China’s “iron-brother” Pakistan have also been persistently flouting ceasefire along the Line of Control with India, apart from facilitating infiltration by terrorists.

“I would like to add, if it is anyone who should be worried about or critical about this new capability of the Indian Air Force, it should be those who want to threaten our territorial integrity,” the Defence Minister said. He not only sent out a message to China and Pakistan, but also took a dig at the opposition Congress, which had criticized the Rs 59000 crore India-France deal that the Modi Government had inked in September 2016 to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets “off the shelf”.

The Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday tweeted to congratulate the IAF for its latest acquisition. He, however, also reiterated the questions he had earlier asked the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government at the Centre, like why each aircraft costs Rs 1670 Crore instead of Rs 526 Crores and why 36 jets were bought instead of 126 as was originally planned and why Reliance Defence was given a Rs 30000 crore contract instead of the state-own Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Gandhi’s party had earlier accused the Modi Government of nudging the Dassault Aviation to choose Reliance Defence as its offset partner, ignoring the HAL. The Supreme Court, however, in December 2018 concluded that no irregularities were found in the deal. It also dismissed review petitions in November 2019.