Rafale: Karnataka CM asks why Modi Govt didn’t protect interests of HAL 

“Nirmala Sitharaman shifted the blame on Congress for [Rafale] contract not going to HAL, then why this government takes these kinds of decisions? They have all powers, they could have given this order to HAL and protected the interests of HAL. Why haven't they done so?,” ANI reported Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy as saying on Monday, October 1.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has accused the Modi Government of favouring private player Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Limited over state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limted (HAL) as offset partner for the ₹30,000 crore Rafale fighter jet deal.

Terming the Congress charges false, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking in Bengaluru on Sunday, September 30 had blamed the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for not finalising the deal with Dassault Aviation and failing to seal the deal with HAL.

However, the Karnataka Chief Minister has now said that the Narendra Modi Government had all the powers to protect the interests of HAL and questioned why the Rafale order was not given to HAL.

With IANS inputs

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This article was updated at 1.40 pm on October 1 to add the IANS credit