New Delhi: Deputy Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Raghunath Nambiar on Thursday said that the Congress President’s claim of wrongdoing in the Rafale deal inked between India and France does not hold grounds with no match between his words and the facts.

While responding to queries on the sidelines of an international seminar called “8^th Heli Power India – held at the Subruto Park in New Delhi. In his reply, he said that the allegations leveled by Congress party President Rahul Gandhi on the government having a connection with the Rs. 58,000 crore deal for 36 Rafale jets does not match the facts.

The deal was seen with suspicions by the Congress camp which says that there are many questions about the deal that cannot be answered, like the more than the cost escalation for the fighter jets etc. The government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the accused person, rejected all the charges but did not disclose the price details despite the demand by saying that an agreement between India-France reached in 2008 does not allow the government to disclose it.

According to Mr. Gandhi, the price of the Rafale fighters rose three times from an earlier price of Rs. 540 crore per piece finalized by the then UPA government to the present Rs. 1,600 crores per piece under the current NDA government.

“This, who are claiming such numbers, I think they are misinformed and probably not aware of the facts that are known to us in the Indian Air Force,” Mr. Nambiar said.

“As we are the ones who were very much part of the negotiations with the French government. And we have the facts with us,” he said.

“And, I don’t think what is being alleged matches up with facts at all,” Mr. Nambiar said.

When inquired about the price details of a Rafale jet, which is being alleged to be much higher compared to the earlier negotiated price, he said, that the total cost of the acquisition contains two elements, one of them is that the price itself dictates the total cost and the second one is the payment term.

“I can tell you that the Rafale that we have gone for is substantially lower than the price that was on the table in 2008,” he said.

While answering a query over the allegation of offset contract being awarded to certain pre-selected private corporate players, he said, “The facts on record, indicate that there is no truth in those allegations.”

India inked a deal with the government of France back in September 2016 for a total of Rafale fighters. The delivery of the same is scheduled to start from September 2019 onwards.

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