Team Herald
NEW DELHI: Continuing its tirade on the Rafale fighter aircraft deal of Prime Minister Modi, the Congress on Thursday demanded resignation of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman after a former Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) chairman nailed her “lie” on the public sector company’s incapability.
“The RM (Rafale Minister) tasked with defending corruption has been caught lying again. The former HAL chief, T S Raju, has nailed her lie, that HAL didn’t have the capability to build the Rafale. Her position is untenable & she must resign,” Rahul tweeted. He himself expanded RM as ‘Rafale Minister’ instead of ‘Raksha Mantri’ as the defence minister is addressed.
Rahul’s tweet was followed up with party spokesman Manish Tewari telling a Press conference: “The ex-HAL chief completely and absolutely demolished the web of lies the Government was trying to weave to mislead the people. Sitharaman has lost the moral right to stay in the office for a minute.”
T Suvarana Raju, who retired as chairman and managing director of HAL only last month end, told the Hindustan Times in an interview: “HAL could have built Rafale fighters in India had the Government managed to close the original negotiations with Dassault.” What pushed the Narendra Modi Government into a corner is the ex-chief’s demand to place all the relevant files in public domain.
Raju went on to assert: “When HAL can build a 25-tonne Sukhoi-30, a fourth-generation fighter jet that forms the mainstay of the Air Force, from raw material stage, then what are we talking about? We could have definitely done it.”
He also disclosed that HAL and Dassault Aviation, manufacturers of Rafale aircraft, had signed a work share agreement. This was confirmed by Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier on March 25, 2015 who said, “the deal to purchase 126 Rafales is now 95 per cent completed. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd would be the local co-contractor for assembling the Rafale.”
Former Defence Minister A K Antony had also said two days ago: “Sitharaman claims the UPA deal collapsed as HAL did not have the capability to produce 108 aircraft in India. This is completely false. HAL is our Navratna company. It has a standing of 75 years and is the only Aerospace Manufacturing Company that can indigenously manufacture fighter aircrafts in India. It has manufactured 4060 aircraft of 31 types- licensed aircraft, UAV’s, helicopters that are supplied to 20 countries- these include Sukhoi 30’s, MiG-21, MiG-27, Dornier 228, Jaguar, SEPECAT Jaguar— IS, IB and IM variants Vampire, Harlow PC-5 , BAE Hawk, Cheetah &Chetak (helicopters), LCA Tejas and many more.”
Antony had blasted his successor for tarnishing the image of HAL but Sitharam responded saying, the state-run firm was dropped from the Rafale deal by the UPA government itself because HAL and Dassault Aviation could not concur on the production terms, it was dropped from the agreement by the Congress government.”
He added: “Sitharaman says that the then UPA Government could have come forward and pumped in resources into HAL, but they did not. This is absolutely untrue. During Congress-UPA, HAL was a profit making company with ample cash reserves. We don’t know what is her motivation in saying that. In fact, it is the first time in history that under Modi Government, HAL had to take a loan of Rs 1000 Cr from various banks to sustain its finances.”
The ex-HAL chief’s comments contradict the Defence Minister’s position on the public sector’s capabilities. Congress spokeman Tewari said the Government had woven a web of lies to defend its decision to discard HAL for private sector (Anil Ambani’s Reliance), which was awarded the offset contract by Dassault. Sitharaman initially tried to refute this fact but later argued the Government had no role in it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi junked the UPA’s decision to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets, 108 of which were to be made in India by HAL using parts imported from France. Raju also said HAL had maintained the Mirage-2000 aircraft, manufactured by Rafale maker Dassault Aviation, for the last 20 years and it was also involved in the complex Mirage upgrade programme.
He added: “We would have delivered on the Rafale too. I was the leader of the technical team for five years and everything had been sorted out.” To questions related to the cost of India-assembled Rafales being higher, one of the reasons why the UPA could not conclude the negotiations, Raju said making military platforms in India is always a strategic decision and it’s not always about the immediate cost. “You have to see the life-cycle costs and not the cost per piece of a fighter. Life-cycle costs would have definitely been cheaper. And ultimately it’s about self-reliance.”
Raju also said that HAL would have been happy to give a guarantee for the aircraft it produced. “Dassault and HAL had signed the mutual work-share contract and given it to the government. Why don’t you ask the government to put the files out in public? The files will tell you everything.”
Quoting him at length, Tewari said: “It is not only surprising that the minister trashed a PSU in this cavalier manner. The ex-HAL chief has demolished the entire case built by her.”
“India would have become self-reliant, had HAL got the technology and built Rafale. What happened to Modi’s Make-in-India? If the Defence Minister has the courage of conviction, let the entire Rafale files be placed before the public,” Tewari added.
