The Supreme Court adjourned a hearing yesterday on a petition seeking a stay on a controversial fighter jet deal between India and France that has sparked a political firestorm.
The court said the next hearing would take place on October 10.
The governments of India and France signed an agreement in 2016 for the purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets in flyaway condition for the Indian Air Force.
The Rafale fighter is a multi-role combat aircraft manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.
The deal came four years after the earlier Congress-led alliance government selected Rafale and proposed a plan to buy 126 jets, with 18 to be bought in flyaway condition and 108 to be made in India by Dassault along with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
The Congress, now in the opposition, has claimed that the current government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is buying the jets at an inflated price.
“Since there is a growing perception that the Modi government’s Rafale deal has more skeletons in its closet, let there be a JPC (joint parliamentary committee) to bring out the truth,” A K Antony, Congress party leader and former defence minister said at a press briefing.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman dismissed the allegations saying the price negotiated by her government was 9% cheaper than that agreed upon by the Congress-led government.
She also held the Congress government responsible for HAL being overlooked for the deal.
“All these attributes that are being put to us about HAL...it’s not for us but the UPA (Congress-led United Progressive Alliance) to answer as to why the agreement between Dassault and HAL did not happen,” Sitharaman said.
“The UPA government could have done anything to strengthen HAL’s offer, to make sure its terms were appealing enough for Dassault, they could have done everything to ensure the terms were appealing enough for Dassault to conclude the agreement,” she said.
“This entire issue of HAL not being chosen happened during their time, so all these questions that they are now being directed at us should actually go to them. You have not taken care of HAL, you have not made the terms appealing enough for the HAL to successfully bid with Dassault,” she said.
She also countered Antony’s assertions of the Modi government was compromising national security by reducing the number of jets to 36 from the 126.
“He has done the negotiations, so he knows about how do they go. These are not over-the-counter purchases...Orders have to placed and then they have to be manufactured, thus there is a timeline.
“The government has responded to the issues raised by the Congress including about the price of the basic aircraft in parliament. It was our duty to ensure that we get the best price. The price you (UPA) obtained for a basic aircraft when compared with the intergovernmental agreement that we have done, it is 9% cheaper, and it is fact,” she added.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addresses a press conference in New Delhi yesterday.
