Ahmedabad: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said that the Rafale deal issue being raised by Congress party was not tarnishing the image of the Narendra Modi government but was in fact sabotaging the operational needs of the Indian Air Force.

She also said that the number of aircraft under the deal has in reality been increased by the Modi government.
The Defence Minister said that the question as to why the government run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) could not get the deal for France made aircraft and was there any competency issue involved in it, should be asked to the then UPA government and its then defence minister during whose tenure the deal could not finalise.

She also said that the Indian government has not made any recommendation about any company for the deal as claimed by former French president Francois Hollande.

The defence minister refused to make any comment on the media reports about another surgical strike against Pakistan saying that she doesn’t need to say anything when home minister Rajnath Singh and other senior ministers have made comments.

Addressing a press conference here at the IIM-A, Sitharaman said that the congress campaign about Rafale deal was based on half-truths and baseless allegations. ‘It is not tarnishing the image of my government but sabotaging the Indian Air Force operational needs. It is also getting support from our neighbouring country (Pakistan),’ she said.

She said that our finance minister in his blog has clarified about Hallande’s remarks and how he changed his statement later. ‘I want to say that we have not made any recommendation (about Anil Ambani’s company) for the deal. Neither for a private company nor for a public one. We have not even given a suggestion in this regard,’ the minister said.

Sitharaman said that it was not correct to say that the Modi government had brought down the number of aircraft being bought under the deal, ‘The deal which could not take place during UPA regime talked about buying 18 aircraft ( one squadron) in ready to fly condition and rest of the 126 later. Looking as the diminishing number of aircraft in IAF fleet which had come down from 42 to 33, it was decided to buy 2 squadrons ie 36 ready to fly aircraft instead of one squadron as an emergency measure. This has been done using provision for purchase in such emergency case. Thus in fact the number of aircraft purchase has been increased from 18 to 36. We also wanted to be sure about the various aspects of aircraft before going for a bigger purchase over a period of time. The supply of the fly-away aircraft has been started from September,’ she said.

She also said that the information about the price of the aircraft has been shared in the parliament.

To a query about the BJP ally Shivsena leader Sanjay Raut comparing Rafale deal to Bofors, She said that she would like to give more information to him about it so as to make things clear.

She also said that the NDA government was not using top Defence officials to express its own views. ‘Our government did not ask the Air force, Army or Navy chiefs to speak what it wants and at the same time it did not prevent them from speaking whatever they feel necessary,’ she said.

The defence minister also said that the policy of the Indian government about dailogue with Pakistan was quite consistent and clear and it was ‘talks and terrorism can’t go hand in hand. She also said that Pakistan was allowing international terrorist Hafiz Said and other masterminds of Mumbai terror attack move freely on its soil. She also said the government was aware of the attempts of terror outfits to use hawala racket via Dubai to sent money in India from Pakistan for nefarious designs.

To a query she also said that the government was taking various steps to increase the efficacy of Tejas aircraft and bring its newer versions.

DeshGujarat