The Rafale deal with France is in its advanced stages and the government intends to close it quite soon, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday.
But contrary to Parrikar’s statement, BJP’s official twitter handle had tweeted on 19 April saying the Rafale deal was ‘strengthening defence capabilities’, and mentioning the amount of public money saved by closing the deal.
Asked if a final agreement had been reached on the price for buying 36 Rafale jets, the minister said:
I can only tell the deal is in an quite advanced stage. We intend to close it quite soon. But we can’t say negotiations are over until we sign it (agreement) or it is cleared by the cabinet.
The minister was asked about a post made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on its Facebook page and Twitter handle saying the deal had been finalised at $8.8 billion.
An image posted on the BJP Facebook page said the Narendra Modi government “saved $3.2 billion (Rs.21,000 crore) out of the $12 billion (Rs.80,000 crore) deal”.
In 2012, India decided to ink a deal for 126 Rafale jets.
But that deal didn’t work out, and another deal for purchasing 36 Rafale combat jets in fly-away condition was inked during the prime minister’s visit to France in April last year.
(With IANS inputs)
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