Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday, 29 July, congratulated the Indian Air Force for the Rafale aircraft, but asked three pointed questions to the Government of India.
"1) Why each aircraft costs Rs 1,670 Crores instead of Rs 526 Crores? 2) Why 36 aircraft were bought instead of 126? 3) Why was bankrupt Anil given a Rs 30,000 Crores contract instead of HAL?" he wrote in a tweet, hours after five Rafale jets landed at the Ambala air base after a 7,000-km journey from France.T
The Congress – led by Rahul Gandhi – had last year mounted allegations of irregularities in the procurement process of the Rafale aircraft.
PM Modi Welcomes Jets in India With Tweet in Sanskrit
Earlier on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the jets to India with a tweet in Sanskrit, saying, "There is nothing more virtuous than national defence."
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said that the "touchdown of Rafale combat aircrafts in India marks the beginning of a new era in our military history."
Saying that the aircraft will revolutionise the capabilities of the Indian Air Force, Singh said that the jets were purchased "only because PM Narendra Modi took the right decision to get these aircraft through an Inter-Governmental Agreement with France, after the long pending procurement case for them could not progress."
‘Baseless Allegations Against Procurement Have Been Answered’
"The Rafale jets were purchased when they fully met the operational requirements of the IAF. The baseless allegations against this procurement have already been answered and settled... I would like to add, if it is anyone who should be worried about or critical about this new capability of the Indian Air Force, it should be those who want to threaten our territorial integrity," the defence minister said in a series of tweets, in a veiled attack at the Opposition.
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