New Delhi, September 18: Former Defence Minister AK Antony on Tuesday has launched a fresh salvo at the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government over the Rafale deal. Speaking at a press conference, Antony blamed the government for presenting wrong facts over the deal. He said, “Law Minister claimed that in the new agreement, aircraft is 9% cheaper than UPA deal. FM told it is 20% cheaper. Officer of IAF told it is 40% cheaper. Why did they not buy more than 126 if it was cheaper?”

The senior Congress leader also accused Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of suppressing facts on the Rafale deal. He also asked that why the government was shying away from setting up a joint parliamentary committee to probe it. The former defence minister also slammed the Modi government for purchasing only 36 aircraft instead of 126 and also paying more price per aircraft as negotiated by the UPA government.

In August, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley refuted the charges levelled by the Congress. Jaitley termed allegations of the Congress as kindergarten or primary school debate. The finance minister, “What was negotiated from 2015 to 2016 and finally executed in 2016, with the escalations and the currency variations, the basic aircraft price turns out to be 9% cheaper.”

The Congress is also targeting the Centre for giving offset-deal to newly created private sector company Reliance Defence owned by Anil Ambani instead of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL). Defence Minister Sitharaman on Tuesday has responded to the allegation levelled by the Congress. She said that the UPA government took the decision of de-selecting HAL.

Initially, the UPA government signed a deal of USD 12 billion which amounts to Rs 78,000 crore (approx.) for acquiring 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), Rafale Fighter jets. Out of these 126 jets, 18 were to be procured in ‘ready to fly’ condition and rest were to be produced in India in partnership with HAL. As the UPA failed to conclude the deal before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA government after coming to power scrapped the old deal. The central government signed a new contract with the French government in 2016, worth Rs 59,000 to acquire 36 jets in ready to fly condition.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 18, 2018 04:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).