Sitharaman, Antony face-off over Rafale

Aditi Tandon & 

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 18

The government today rejected Congress’ demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the April 10, 2015, deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets between India and France saying the matter was already being discussed in Parliament.

“What JPC? We are already discussing the in Parliament,” Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said two hours after her predecessor AK Antony reiterated Congress’ demand for a JPC, and asked what the government feared.

The Congress will tomorrow petition CAG and soon also the Central Vigilance Commission as it “believes these bodies have the constitutional duty to take suo motu cognisance of the Rafale deal.”

The Defence Minister returned fire after Antony questioned the government on a range of issues, including exclusion of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) from the offset partnership clause—something that was part of the UPA time negotiations. Sitharaman counter-questioned Antony asking why his government didn’t ensure HAL’s terms were appealing enough for Dassault to make it an offset partner in UPA’s times.

 “One of the things that didn’t happen during UPA tenure was that HAL and Dassault could not work together. You (the UPA) have not taken care of HAL. You have not finalised the Rafale deal. The deal didn’t happen because Dassault Aviation and HAL could not agree on production terms,” she said.