Leaders from the BJP and Congress have called it various different things, but no one has been accurate. Here’s how to pronounce Rafale.
New Delhi: The Rafale deal has been the hot button issue in the opposition’s attack on the purportedly scam-free Narendra Modi government. From defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Rafale is frequently deployed in the war between the parties.
Yet, despite becoming the political buzzword of 2018, it seems India’s politicians haven’t quite figured out how to correctly pronounce the name of the French fighter aircraft.
Is it Ra-faal-e? Ra-fa-el? Ra-file? Ra-faal? No one is really sure. But don’t worry, help is at hand!
What are ministers saying?
On 20 July, Gandhi started the Congress-BJP Rafale war by accusing Sitharaman of lying to the country “under pressure from the PM”. He claimed Sitharaman’s justification that the price of the Rafale deal could not be revealed because of a secrecy pact between India and France was “untrue”. Gandhi said he himself had checked with the French President, who told him there was no such pact.
At a rally in Karnataka’s Bidar Monday, Gandhi reiterated his challenge to PM Modi, saying: “Make me debate with Modi on Rafale for as long as you can, for as many hours as you can… and he would not be able to speak for one second.” His words were an echo of those he used on 20 July.
Also read: Everything you wanted to know about Rafale and did not know who to ask
Gandhi’s pronunciation of the name of the aircraft is intuitively common — he slips into referring to it as Ra-fael, the same way one pronounces the name of tennis legend Rafael Nadal.
Responding to Gandhi’s statement, Sitharaman had stood up from her seat and shouted that “Rahul is misleading the House”. Since then, she has maintained that the government was merely following procedure as per the agreement with France, tweeting on 9 August: “A recent attempt, in the House, to malign the government through baseless charges collapsed. Today’s was yet another attempt at repeating fabricated fact. #Rafale”
Sitharaman pronounces the name as Ra-fail.
Her ministerial colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad have also incorrectly pronounced Rafale while making statements in the past.
Prasad refers to the Rafale as “raffle”, as in the game of lottery, while Azad removes the first ‘a’ sound altogether, calling it “re-ffle”.
Coincidentally, Prasad’s pronunciation unintentionally reveals the origins of Rafale.
How to correctly pronounce Rafale?
The word ‘rafale’ originated in the late 14th century from the Middle French word ‘rafle’ or ‘raffe’, which means ‘the act of snatching’ or ‘rafle’, as in the dice game. In modern-day usage, rafale literally refers to a gust of wind, or can also be used to indicate a burst of fire when used in a military context.
Thus, Rafale holds both symbolic as well as literal significance as the name for a French fighter plane.
The actual pronunciation sounds a little like this: R(h)u-faal. The ‘R’ sound has twist of ‘H’ in it. The first syllable ‘r(h)u’ is unstressed; the second, ‘faal’, is stressed. The ‘e’ at the end is silent.
Also read: In the Rafale brouhaha, India has missed its real, bigger defence scandal
The title of this article is misleading. What do you mean by nobody ? How did Nandita Singh come to this conclusion ? Absolutely preposterous !!!!
The print haha you people will really teach us pronounciation.
We are far better in communication , and request you avoid using the word India in every reference.keep in mind
This analysis is completely wrong. Rafael is a french word which means a gust of wind. Un raffle de vent. Literall gust of wind. It has nothing to do with rafle or snatching. The word can also mean a police swoop in a pre dawn raid.
Who cares for spelling or pronunciation, as long as the issue is clear.
Only Lokpal can deal with this and bring clarity.