Rafale deal: Nirmala says details couldn't be disclosed

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the Defence Ministry couldn't disclose the details of the Rafale fighter jet contract because such disclosures were barred by the provisions of an inter-governmental agreement signed between India and France in the UPA dispensation.

“In 2008, India and France signed an inter-governmental agreement on the purchase of Rafale aircraft. As per Article 10 of the IGA on the purchase of Rafale aircraft, protection of classified information and materials exchanged under IGA shall be governed by provisions of the security agreement signed on January 25, 2008,” Nirmala said in the Lok Sabha countering Congress president Rahul Gandhi's allegation of corruption in the aircraft deal.

The defence minister showed a copy of the agreement signed by her predecessor A K Antony, who was India's longest-serving defence minister under two successive UPA regimes.

Nirmala also quoted a media interview of French president Emmanuel Macron, who had stated that commercial details on the Rafale deal couldn't be disclosed because of French company's (Dassault Aviation) competitors in the global military aviation market.

She quoted the interview to counter another charge by Rahul, who claimed that the French president denied the existence of any such secrecy arrangement in a one-on-one meeting between Rahul and Macron.

“Defence minister first said I will tell you the price of the aircraft. Then she said clearly I can't tell you the cost because of a secrecy clause. Then I met the French president, who said there is no secrecy clause. The defence minister has clearly spoken the untruth,” Rahul said in his speech in the Lok Sabha on the no-confidence motion.

In September 2016, India signed its biggest defence deal with France to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets at a price of 7.87 billion Euro (nearly Rs 59,000 crore). This was done almost 15 months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement during his trip to France in April 2015.

The Congress alleged that the government inked the controversial defence deal at an inflated price of Rs 1570.8 crore per aircraft as against the Rs 526.1 crore per aircraft price as negotiated by the UPA.

The ministry later clarified that the base price of each of the Rafale fighter jet was Rs 670 crore without the associated equipment, weapons, India Specific Enhancements, maintenance support and services.