Congress and its Rafale delusion!

The conduct of Congress party in the whole affair of procurement of combat jets shows a complete disregard for national security and preference for private illicit enrichment over national interests. In all this din over the Rafale deal, it was almost forgotten that the Indian Airforce badly needed to bolster its squadron strength in view of the obsolescence of some categories of its fighter jets and that the in-principle approval for the procurement of 126 fighter jets was given way back in 2001. The dire straits of aging fleet were evident in the skirmishes that took place between Indian Air Force and Pakistan Air Force over LOC.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s attack on Rafale deal is based on lies and he has manufactured a lot of them in the last few months. He first alleged that there was no Indo-French secrecy clause in the Rafale deal. This was denied by the French President. He then went on to say that Narendra Modi pressurized Dassault to sub-contract to Anil Ambani. This was denied by Dassault Aviation. A fake audio tape was also attempted to be presented by Rahul Gandhi during the debate on Rafale in the Parliament and when he was asked to vouch for its authenticity, he withdrew it. In the latest addition to this list, Rahul Gandhi referred to his conversation with late Shri Manohar Parrikar, which apparently took place during his brief courtesy meeting with the ex-defence minister, while the fact is that no such conversation took place during that meeting.

Repeated attempts have been made to question the pricing.Details regarding pricing have been reported by almost every defence reporter long back. The MMRCA negotiation with Rafale talked of basic price of Rs. 550 crores plus inflation and exchange rate fluctuations. The adjusted price of a basic aircraft under the MMRCA would have been Rs. 737 crore whereas the price negotiated under the current deal is Rs. 650 crore, which is 9 percent cheaper. The defence ministry has time and again said that total cost and number of aircrafts is already in public domain but details of equipment and their prices are of confidential in nature and covered by the Indo-French security agreement of 2008. Disclosing details of arms and ammunition fitted to these fighter jets will defeat the purpose of high-end fighter planes.The government has also managed to negotiate a better maintenance and serviceability deal with Rafale.

The Congress is also misleading on the offset clause as the procurement under the offset clause is based on payment schedule and can be for any product covered under it and is not for Rafale spare parts alone. Solvency challenges of Anil Ambani group of companies makes him an easy target now and has been singled out from the offset partners of Dassault, which are 120 in number. I would like to remind that it was Congress led UPA government that had allowed Anil Ambani group to commercially sell coal from mines that were allotted to it under the Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) for captive use - this exception was made only for him at a time when the coal prices were going through the roof. Crony capitalism is in the DNA of Congress.

All the details pertaining to the Rafale deal were shared with the Supreme Court in a sealed cover. It was also informed that the CAG had been given access to all the files related to Rafale deal and the CAG report will be placed before the Parliamentary Committee. After going through the details of pricing and other terms and conditions, the Court had said that due process of procurement was followed and refused to order an investigation as sought by petitioners. Review petitions filed in the matter are likely to meet the same fate. Even the CAG report has given clean chit to the government.

Recently, a newspaper article, quoted details that are not even part of the official Rafale file. They were actually explanation notes on the matter after some media reported stories on Rafale. Moreover, there is question that why only 36 jets. The question is when did the government close the option for additional Rafales? The government is also questioned on the missed opportunity to make full use of the leverage provided by the new offer from the Eurofighter Consortium. The government has rightly said that entertaining the new offer at that stage was impermissible under the DPP and also a violation of CVC guidelines and would have further delayed the procurement.  

A lot of noise is also made about the deal being given go ahead by 4-3 decision. This dissent within the Indian Negotiating Team was answered by the Defence minister in the Parliament wherein she had said that in the highest traditions of the civil services, all views were aired and recorded and a collegiate decision taken after considering such opinions. Also all the decisions were also taken after due process of inter-ministerial consultations as per defence procurement process.

The biggest irony of Congress’ campaign on Rafale is the fact that an inter governmental agreement (IGA) is being compared to a tender process that did not materialize. One can insert a number of supposedly ‘favourable’ conditions in the tendering process the final outcome of which is subject to negotiations. Intransigence on these conditions can lead to a breakdown of the negotiations. To compare negotiable terms under such a ‘non-deal’ to an actual agreement is unreasonable in every manner. IGA also eliminated middlemen and commission agents that had become a bane of all defense procurements through open tendering process.

The Congress demand for joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate the deal is not fair as the Supreme Court has already given clean chit andthe review petition is pending, CAG report is already with the Parliamentary Standing Committee and as such presently there are no adverse reports on evidences except unsubstantiated allegations that don’t add up.The Congress and its sympathizers have failed to come up with any proof that could implicate the government. Every question on the issue of Rafale deal has been answered from the floor of the Parliament. Congress and its cohorts are still repeating lies because its intent is to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of Indian public.

The greed of Congress had ensured that there was no contract for the supply of newer fighter jets even after Rafale was declared as L1. Every single day’s delay was compromising our defense preparedness and national security. So far as the so called scam of Congress is concerned, it can cry itself hoarse; Government, BJP and the people of India have much better things to do.

The ever skeptic opposition fails in its design

Latin philosopher René Descartes’ proposition I think therefore I am loosely means we cannot doubt our own existence but Indian politicians have started doubting anything and everything including valor of our armed forces just to give politics in India their own hue. I doubt therefore I exist seems to be the new normal for the opposition political parties in India in a situation when the country is under severe terror threat from across the border. It is dealing with the strategy of thousand cuts inflicted upon it by its neighbouring country in a proxy war. Our armed forces have been answering them without fail and with an unparalleled courage.

But the way opposition political parties are responding to the offensive of the armed forces against terrorists as if the very existence of Opposition block in the country will be in jeopardy if they don’t doubt it. Actually there is a motive and narrative behind it and the motive is to please minority vote bank. The opposition is working on this premise that by such action minority community will be pleased and vote for them even if they take such stand which is actually harming the interest of the country. So they doubt anything and everything done by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the country. It appears that anything done by the BJP government even on issues related to security of the country must pass through the scrutiny of the Opposition. But the magnitude of the antagonism is such that it seems they are suffering from some disorder by repeating same thing again and again. On the contrary anything done by the so-called Opposition is self certificatory.

Let’s see where the Opposition political parties are in doubt. Opposition parties doubt the very claim of the government that it had hit the terrorist camp of Jaish e Mohammad led by Masood Azhar at Balakot in Pakistan in which it is expected that over 250 to 300 terrorists were neutralized. But Opposition parties including the principal opposition Congress demands from the government the exact number of terrorists killed in the attack to be given. Similarly the opposition parties doubted the first-ever surgical strike conducted by the Indian armed forces in which not only launch pad of terrorists was demolished but dozens of terrorists too were eliminated. But in this case also the opposition parties are demanding proof right from the time go.

They also doubt economic growth of the country, doubt the GDP numbers, number of beneficiaries of the government schemes, employment generated with schemes like Skill India, Start Ups, Stand Ups, MUDRA, Seekho and Kamao, schemes like USTAD and many more. As per the government records, these schemes have generated around 15 crore jobs but opposition behaving like a broken record of yesteryear and does not want to come out of the same very state of mind on every issue. It doubts electronic voting machine, it doubts Supreme Court, it doubts CAG, it doubts CBI, it selectively doubts the Supreme Court and it doubts Election Commission of India.

It questions Speaker of the Lok Sabha, it again selectively doubts Indian media but relies upon western media which in most of the cases parasite of India media. They doubt many other institutions of the country. But it works on certain pre-decided schemes like everything done by the BJP government will be doubted and attempt would be made to embarrass the government even on the issues related to the national security. So much so that even the nuclear test conducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was doubted for its claim on the intensity of the explosion. They had doubted the government at the time of Kargil War.

There is a section that had gone to the extent of saying that Mumbai attack (26/11) was the handiwork of the RSS in which Azmal Kasab was caught red handed and later on hanged to death. A book also got published by an Urdu journalized which was released by none other than the Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh. Lalu Yadav gave the theory that Godhara train was burnt by Karsevak themselves who were traveling inside. Former Union Home Minister Chidambaram asked for the exact number if it was 300 or 350. There is a long list of such questions being asked by the opposition and they work on the strategy shoot and scoot. But the strategy of opposition does not seem to working with the present dispensation at the Centre as there is no one to buy their perpetual doubting state of mind. The government has enough proofs to support its action from economic development to national security.