Rafale jets - graveyard of Modi's political career.

Byline: Sheikh Farkhar-e-Alam

IN order to understand the biggest scam of Indian history we have to go back to 28 Aug, 2007 when Indian Defence Ministry accepted proposals for 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft fighter jets.

In January 2012, negotiations started with Dassault Aviation, the French company, for purchase of Rafale aircraft because their bid was the lowest.

The deal was to purchase 126 fighter jets, out of which 18 fighter jets were supposed to be manufactured in France, while remaining 108 were supposed to be manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) after transfer of technology by Dassault Aviation.

In March 2014 Dassault Aviation and HAL signed a 'work share agreement' which stated that 70% of the work to manufacture the 108 aircraft in India, was to be taken by HAL and the rest 30% by Dassault Aviation.

In the meantime, government changed and Modi took charge. Interestingly, on 8 April 2015 Indian Foreign Secretary said that negotiations among Indian government, HAL and Dassault's are still not over, while just after two days, Indian PM Narinder Modi went to France and suddenly on 10 April, 2015 a joint statement was issued by Indian and French governments that a new deal has been struck.

As per the new deal, 36 Rafale aircraft were to be purchased by the Indian government, all of which in fly-away off the shelf condition. After that, on 23 Sept 2016 an inter-governmental agreement was signed.

An exciting fact is that just before Modi's visit to France, from 25 to 28 March 2015 two new companies Adani Defence Systems and Reliance defence limited were formed. In new Rafale deal there was an offset clause of 50% investment of total amount in India.

On 3 Oct 2016 Reliance group of Anil Ambani, a close aide of PM Modi, opened a joint venture with Dassault aviation with title 'Dassault Reliance Aerospace ltd'.

In June 2017, 'The Hindu' reported that from Rs. 30000 crore investment of Dassault in India, around Rs. 21000 Crore would be invested in this joint venture.

On 21 Sept, 2018 this controversy intensified when former French President Francis Holanday said that Modi's government has chosen Anil Ambani's Reliance ltd as an offset partner while it was not choice made by France.

The cost of original Rafale deal for 126 aircrafts was around Rs 54000 crore, an average cost of one Rafale was 526 Crore.

The new deal by Modi cost around Rs 59000 crore for only 36 fighter jets, which cost Rs 1638 Crore per...