Complete nonsense, says Arun Shourie on alibis on ‘Rafale scam’

Arun Shourie, former union minister and BJP leader, on Saturday weighed in again on the ‘Rafale scam’ and questioned the alibis being presented by the Government and Arun Jaitley, ‘the blogger’. He was in conversation with TV anchor and author Karan Thapar in ‘The Wire Dialogue’ hosted by digital media platform The Wire.

Shourie dismissed as ‘bunk’ arguments put up by Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy, who was the chief of Air Force between 2001 and 2004, and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in defence of the Rafale deal.

In an article in The Indian Expresson Saturday the former Air Chief defended the deal and claimed that the Air Force had sought 36 Rafale planes ‘immediately’ in 2014, leaving the Government with no option but to ink a Government-to-Government agreement to buy 36 Rafale planes in fly-away condition.

Questioned by Thapar, Shourie admitted that the Government could fast-track acquisition but pointed out that this could be done only in case of an ‘operational emergency’. Wondering what kind of emergency was there in 2014, the former union minister and commentator also said that there were laid down rules for fast-tracking acquisitions, rules which the Modi Government ignored.

Shourie read out a statement made in Parliament by the then Defence Minister, Arun Jaitley, in August, 2014. The Defence Minister had then informed Parliament that 18 Rafale planes in fly-away condition would arrive in the next three or four years while the remaining 108 Rafale planes would be manufactured in India under license over the next seven years. Clearly there was no emergency till that point of time, he pointed out.

When Thapar drew his attention to the claim of Arun Jaitley made in his blog that the price of Rafale planes had increased because of the price escalation clause and exchange rate fluctuations, Shourie pointed out that the Minister of State for Defence had given out the price of each Rafale plane as Rs 610 Crore as late as in November, 2016. “What kind of exchange rate fluctuation in the last two years could have raised the price of each plane by a thousand Crore and make it Rs 1,600 Crore,” he wondered aloud.

Referring to the claim that the price had increased because of India-specific add-ons, Shourie read out from the joint statement issued by India and France, which clearly stated that the Rafale planes would have the same configurations as specified earlier by the Indian Air Force. “There are no add-ons”, he maintained.

Asked to comment on BJP’s defence that the Government had nothing to do with Dassault choosing Anil Ambani’s company as its offset partner in India, Shourie referred to rules that laid down that the ‘offset proposals’ by foreign suppliers had to be vetted by a committee in the MoD and approved by the Defence Minister.

It was wrong and mischievous, he suggested, to claim that foreign suppliers could choose anyone, ‘even a company which has not yet produced a screw’as partner.