Contrary to Rahul Gandhi’s claims in Parliament, the Mirage 2000 aircraft was manufactured by Dassault Aviation, the maker of Rafale fighter jets.
New Delhi: As he mounted an attack on the Narendra Modi government over the Rafale deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed in the Parliament Wednesday that state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) manufactured Mirage 2000 aircraft.
Unfortunately for Gandhi, the statement is factually incorrect.
The Mirage 2000 aircraft was manufactured by French firm Dassault Aviation, the maker of Rafale fighter jets, which is in the eye of a political storm.
Speaking in the Parliament, Gandhi said, “HAL has been making aircraft for 70 years…Mirage 2000…”
The fact is that Mirage 2000 was bought from France through a contract which was signed during by a Congress government in 1982. The first seven Mirage 2000 were also delivered during Congress rule in 1985.
The HAL has been responsible for maintenance and overhaul of the aircraft for over two decades, but it most certainly cannot be attributed as the aircraft manufacturer.
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Mirage in India
At present, India has a strength of three squadrons of Mirage 2000, capable of delivering a nuclear payload.
The Mirage is currently undergoing a $2.4-billion upgrade in which the HAL, trained by the French firm, is playing a major role.
According to the deal, the first two Mirage 2000 were upgraded by Dassault Aviation and handed over to Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2015. They have upgraded two more in India and are to collaborate with the HAL for six more.
The rest of the Mirage 2000 will be upgraded by HAL.
Also read: Amid Rafale row, parliamentary panel slams HAL for failure to provide required Tejas jets
The Rafale contract
The contract for the 36 Rafale fighter jets can be traced back to the Mirage 2000 aircraft.
Way back in 2001, when the IAF moved a proposal to buy Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) — for which Rafale was eventually selected — the French maker offered to shift the assembly line of the Mirage 2000 from France to India. It had, at the time, decided to shut down the aircraft line to pave the way for Rafale fighter jets.
By 2004, India had decided to go in for a global tender for the MMRCA rather than manufacture the Mirage 2000. It was only in 2007 that a global Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued, in which the Rafale emerged as the winner.
At the moment, India is witnessing a political storm over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets under the Modi government.
As the dogfight between BJP and Congress intensifies, the truth has become casualty. However, one thing is certain. Rahul Gandhi has made a fool of himself by making most inappropriate comments. To allege (on the basis of an unauthenticated tape) that former defence minister has kept a secret file in his bedroom and is blackmailing the PM is the most puerile politics. Does this man deserve to the prime minister of India? As the allegations and counter-allegations continue, the common man seems to be confused. The only way out of this maze is to look for undeniable facts, i.e. the facts which have not been denied or could not be denied by the opposing parties, although they had opportunity to do so. Let me point out few: (1) Dassault Aviation was declared as L-1 in January 2012 and yet the Congress did nothing to finalize the contract. Instead (as alleged by Arun Jaitley in the parliament), the then Defence Minsiter, A.K.Antony wrote : “L-1 approved, but the process by which L-1 was decided should be reviewed” –The Congress has not denied this so far. (2) Jaitley insisted in the parliament that two sets of prices were bid by Dassualt Aviation during the UPA regime – one for the bare aircraft and second for weaponized aircraft. In the deal approved by the Modi regime, price for bare aircraft is 9% cheaper and for weaponized aircraft is 20 % cheaper. – The Congress has not denied this so far. Now, if the price for 36 weaponized aircrafts in the revised deal was around Rs.58000 crore (in the earlier deal, it was 20% higher) the cost for 126 jets would have been Rs.203000 crore – a stupendous amount! Add to that possible escalation, considering the man-hours imbroglio, in manufacturing costs, had 108 been manufactured at HAL. Is this the reason, Antony refused to go ahead and sign the contract with Dassault?
ADAG has proved to be an infelicitous choice. No controversy would have arisen if the principal offset partner had been L & T, Tatas, Mahindras. Apart from excessive leverage, the Anil Ambani group has a poor track record of execution, has abandoned prestigious projects.