Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman began her three-day official visit to France on Wednesday night to hold bilateral talks with her French counterpart Florence Parly. During her visit, Sitharaman will also take stock of progress in the supply of the Rafale jets expected to begin next year end. She is also expected to visit Dassault Aviation, which is manufacturing 36 Rafale jets as per Indian specifications under the Government-to-Government deal.
The visit comes at a time when political slugfest is on over the Rs 58,000-crore Rafale fighter jet deal with the main Opposition party Congress charging the NDA Government with wrongdoing.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has raised questions on Nirmala Sitharaman’s France visit, alleging that work has begun to justify the Prime Minister’s decision to buy Rafale fighter aircraft.
He took to Twitter to say while the Supreme Court has asked for the details of the Rafale decision-making process, the decision to buy the fighter aircraft was taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Rahul alleged that processes to justify Modi’s decision are being invented.
“The Supreme Court has asked for the Rafale decision making process. It’s quite simple really... The PM decided. The processes to justify his decision are yet to be invented. But work has begun. Ps. In this connection, Raksha Mantri is leaving for France tonight,” he said.
The delivery of the fighter aircraft is expected to begin in 2019 and the IAF hopes to get the full consignment of 36 jets by 2022.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the decision to procure 36 Rafales during his visit to Paris in April, 2015. The deal was inked in September 2016.
Sources said here the Defence Minister will hold wide ranging talks with Parly to explore more avenues to strengthen strategic ties between the two nations. The two sides will also review regional and global issues of mutual interests. The two Ministers will hold the first edition of defence dialogue, they added. Sitharaman was earlier slated to go to Paris in mid-September but postponed due to “scheduling issues,” it was learnt.
The Congress was alleging irregularities in the deal, claiming the Government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA Government when it was negotiating the deal. The Congress has also been targeting the Government over selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault. The Government denied all allegations.