New Delhi: Congress and BJP have once again become face-to-face over the purchase of Rafale fighter jets. As reported by Hindustan Times, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the UPA government of irregularities in its 2012 effort regarding the purchase of planes. In response, Congress accused the NDA of a cover-up in 2016 when the deal was finalized. ,
The theme spans from the coming to power of the Congress-led UPA (2004–14) to the present day when the BJP-led NDA came to power after 2014. In this post we will discuss the differences between the same deal in two different regimes,
How is the deal different in both the arrangements?
In 2012, during the UPA government, the Indian Defense Ministry selected the French company Dassault (Dassault or Dassault) to purchase 126 Rafale fighter aircraft. Under this project, 18 aircraft were to be procured directly from France and the remaining 108 were to be built in India with the help of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. At that time the name of this agreement was MMRCA i.e. Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft Deal.
This deal started in the year 2007.
The deal is said to be worth Rs 40,000 crore when it started in 2007. But by 2014, its deal had reached about 80 thousand crore rupees. Since the company kept increasing the price of the deal, the UPA government never sealed the deal.
But the UPA government never officially made public the information about the total value of this deal.
The MMRCA project was put on hold after the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. During his visit to France in April 2015, PM Modi announced the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets directly by entering into an inter-governmental agreement with the French government. In September 2016, the then Defense Ministers of the two countries signed the agreement followed by an inter-governmental agreement.
The cost of a Rafale aircraft is around Rs 670 crore.
In November 2016, Minister of State for Defense Subhash Rao Bhamre told Parliament in response to a question that the cost of a Rafale aircraft is approximately Rs 670 crore. However, it was not clear whether the price quoted was only for the aircraft or whether it included weapons.
The Modi government never officially disclosed the full price of the deal for these 36 aircraft in a public forum. But highly placed sources associated with the Ministry of Defense say that the deal is worth about 59 thousand crore rupees (7.9 billion euros). According to that estimate, the cost of an aircraft would be around Rs 1.5 crore.
But if sources in the Modi government are to be believed, the deal that was done during the UPA era was only for the planes, not for its weapons and other equipment. Whereas in the deal signed by the Modi government, about 71 crore euros (ie about Rs 5341 crore) have been spent on the weapons installed in the fighter planes. Also, 75 percent of the aircraft will always be ready for operation. Apart from this, such equipment was installed in these aircraft by the company that they are suitable for all weather. The deal also covers the cost of the aircraft’s additional equipment.
36 aircraft cost 3402 million euros
Looks like the complete package of Rafale. 36 aircraft cost 3402 million euros. The spare parts for the aircraft are estimated to be worth 1800 million euros while the cost of making them suitable for India’s climate is 1700 million euros. In addition, the cost of performance-based logistics is approximately 353 million euros. About 710 million euros (about 5341 crores) were spent on Rafale missiles and other weapons.
India has so far received 26 Rafale fighter jets. Of these, 18 fighters have been inducted into the Golden Arrow Squadron at Ambala and are deployed to guard the airspace from eastern Ladakh to Himachal Pradesh. To strengthen the air security of the country’s eastern borders, the second squadron of Rafale fighter jets has become operationally ready in Hasimara, West Bengal. There are 8 aircraft in this squadron.
Hashimari Squadron also known as 101 Squadron, also known as ‘Chamba and Akhnoor ka Baaz’. A squadron of the Indian Air Force consists of 18 fighter aircraft. The remaining 10 aircraft are also expected to reach India by next year i.e. March 2022.
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