The Rafale issue finally debated in Lok Sabha today, in the third week of the Winter Session of Parliament. While the opposition sought to take on the government on the issues of process, pricing and patronage, the government rubbished the allegations as manufactured corruption charges being leveled with the motive of tainting a clean govt. It also rejected the opposition’s demand for a JPC probe into the fighter jets deal…saying there are no governance issues in the deal that merit a probe by a partisan body.

Rubbishing all allegations levelled by Congress President Rahul Gandhi on the Rafale deal as manufactured corruption charges, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hit back at the Congress accusing the UPA government of compromising national security.

The Finance Minister said that some people have a natural dislike for truth and can only understand the arithmatic of money but cannot comprehend issues of national security.

Initiating the debate as the lead speaker of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi claimed that India wants answers to a few questions on the Rafale deal while demanding a JPC probe into it.

While reminding the house about the JPC report on the Bofors deal, Arun Jaitley alleged that behind the demand for a JPC probe into the Rafale deal is the motive of the Congress to invent a charge of corruption against a clean government.

The due process was followed\ in the deal. 74 meetings were held to finalise various aspects of the deal, including those of Contract Negotiating Committee and Price Negotiating Committee before being taken up by the Defence Acquisition Council and the Cabinet Committee on Security.

He said that while for bare aircraft, NDA’s agreement was 9% cheaper than what UPA was trying to negotiate for weaponised aircraft, NDA’s deal was 20% cheaper.

Referring to the apex court judgment, Arun Jaitley said that the top court had said that to satisfy its conscience it had asked the government for pricing details, and after going through them it ruled that pricing does not require its intervention.

Jaitley rubbished the charge of a private entity being favored by the government in the deal. He raised questions on Rahul Gandhi’s understanding of the meaning of an offset contract.

He asked how a charge of 1.3 lakh crore worth of offset supplies was being levelled by the opposition when the total offset value in this deal was only Rs. 29,000 crore.

Jaitley explained the reason why HAL did not bag the Rafale contract saying it was asking for 2.7 times more man hours that Dassault for delivering the aircraft and the Indian Air Force wanted faster delivery of jets.

Taking a swipe at the Congress, Jaitley said that even though the apex court is satisfied on all aspects of the Rafale deal, Rahul Gandhi’s electoral requirements are far from being satisfied.