As Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday charged Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of “lying” to the nation regarding the confidentiality clause of the Rafale fighter jet deal, she and the French Government categorically countered the allegation saying there was indeed such a provision, which, incidentally, was part of the agreement that was signed during the Congress-led UPA Government’s tenure itself.
Speaking during the no confidence motion, Rahul claimed during his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited New Delhi in March this year, the visiting dignitary said there was no such pact.
Notwithstanding the strong rebuttals, Rahul stood his ground. “let them deny it if they want. He (French President) said that before me. I was there, Anand Sharma and Manmohan Singh were also there,” he asserted.
Responding to the claim, the French Government said in an official Press release, “We have taken note of the statements of Rahul Gandhi before the Indian Parliament. There is a security agreement between France and India, signed in 2008, which commits the two States to protect the classified information provided by the partner, which could, in particular, impact the security and operational capabilities of the defense equipment, India or France. Its provisions naturally apply to the inter-governmental agreement concluded on 23 September 2016, concerning the acquisition of 36 Rafale and their armaments. As the President of the Republic said publicly last March 9 in his interview with India Today “In France as in India, when an agreement is very sensitive, we can not reveal all the details.”
Earlier, countering Rahul’s charge, Sitharaman informed the lok Sabha soon after he ended his speech that the clause was signed by then Defence Minister AK Antony with his French counterpart in 2008. She made this assertion after Rahul said the Defence Minister on earlier occasions refrained from giving details about the price of every fighter aircraft citing the secrecy pact between the two nations. The overall cost of the deal is 7.8 billion euros.
Dismissing Rahul’s allegation as “absolutely wrong,” she said the India-France agreement to buy the fighter jets was signed in 2008 by the then Defence Minister A K Antony and it had the confidentiality clause.
“It was an agreement of secrecy. Protection of classified information. I am not privy to what the French President told Rahul Gandhi. But I am referring to two particular interviews that the French President had given to Indian TV channels. In the interviews, the French President had said that commercial details of the Rafale deal cannot be revealed,” she said.
Sitharaman quoted the French President as saying in the interviews while replying to specific questions about the Rafale deal: “You have these commercial agreements and obviously you have competitors and we cannot reveal the details.” The Defence Minister said, “Whatever Rahul Gandhi said was absolutely wrong and there is no proof.”
Participating in the debate, Rahul accused the Defence Minister of speaking “untruth” on the deal.”The Defence Minister has spoken ‘untruth’.... The French President has personally told me that there is no secret pact between Indian and French Governments,” he said demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi answer why this contract was given to a particular businessman after taking it away from Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl).
He also said when the UPA regime was negotiating the deal for 126 Rafale jets, the price of each aircraft was RS 550 crores. However, the price of each jet under the new government to government deal is more than Rs. 1,600 crores, he claimed hinting wrong doing.
India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore, nearly one-and-half years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the proposal during a visit to Paris. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September 2019.
The Congress had earlier also claimed that Qatar had purchased 12 Rafale fighter jets in November 2017 for $108.33 million per aircraft (Rs 694.80 crore), noting that the per aircraft rate at which the Gulf nation is buying the jet is much lower than the rate at which India will procure them.