Rafale Deal: Rahul Gandhi Fires Three Questions To Modi-led NDA Government

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday congratulated the Indian Air Force after the first batch of five Rafale jets landed in IAF’s Ambala air base and also questioned Modi government asking clarity for over-pricing, delayed delivery and offset contracts to a bankrupt Indian company in the Rafale deal with France.

Rahul Gandhi took to his Twitter handle and congratulated the Indian Air Force (IAF) and posted three questions to NDA government over the Rafale fighter jets deal.

Congratulations to IAF for Rafale.

Meanwhile, can GOI answer:

1) Why each aircraft costs ₹1670 Crores instead of ₹526 Crores?

2) Why 36 aircraft were bought instead of 126?

3) Why was bankrupt Anil given a ₹30,000 Crores contract instead of HAL?

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 29, 2020

 During the 2019 elections campaign, Rafale was a poll pitch in the Congress' campaign with Rahul Gandhi vociferously attacking the NDA government over the irregularities in the deal. Rahul had resigned from the leadership role of the Congress after the 2019 election results and since then Rahul rarely spoke on the Rafale deal.

But now, after the first batch of five Rafale fighter jets arrived in India yesterday, Rahul once again targeted the BJP government over the Rafale deal with questions over alleged irregularities in the deal, but however he didn't question the decision of buying the Rafale jets as the decision was made by Congress government earlier.

The NDA government has made a Rs 59,000-crore deal to procure 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation. The deal aimed to procure 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF.