Congress reiterates JPC demand

New Delhi: Raking up the issue of alleged corruption in Rafale fighter plane deal, the Congress on Friday accused the government of compromising national security and paying more for the combat aircraft.

While addressing a press conference, senior party leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram alleged that the government has "wronged" the country in two ways -- it compromised national security and paid Rs 186 crore more per plane.

"There is no doubt any longer that Rafale aircraft deal deserves to be examined thoroughly by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Congress reiterates its demand for constitution of a JPC," he said,

citing a media report that claimed that the Modi government's decision to buy 36 jets, instead of 126 planned earlier, jack up the price of each aircraft.

Chidambaram alleged that the "windfall" to French firm Dassault Aviation was a "deliberate decision" and is highly questionable.

After analysing the report, the Congress leader, while presenting his facts and figures, said, "The price negotiated by the UPA government in 2007 was €79.3 million per bare-bones aircraft, which escalated to €100.85 million per aircraft in 2011. After the 'discount' of 9 per cent negotiated by the NDA government in 2016, the price went down (presumably after factoring in the escalation between 2011 and 2016) to € 91.75 million."

"Since Air Force had asked for 13 India Specific Enhancements (ISE) and the negotiated price was €1300 million, it was supposed to be paid under both the UPA and NDA-negotiated deal," he said.

The deal witnessed a twist over the amortization or recovery by Dassault of the cost of ISE as, under the UPA-negotiated deal, it would have been spread over 126 aircraft, which reduced to over 36 aircraft under the NDA-negotiated deal, he said.

The Congress leader further said, "If 126 aircraft had been purchased and Dassault would have delivered one fighter plane every month, it would have recovered €1300 million over 10 years and 6 months. If only 36 aircraft are purchased and delivered between 2009 and 2012 as contracted, then also Dassault would recover €1300 million in 36 months. So it was two ways gain for Dassault."