Tehseen Poonawalla files petition in SC urging Centre to reveal cost of Rafale jets

Political trendwatcher Tehseen Poonawalla has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Central government to reveal the consolidated transaction cost of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts procured by it, pursuant to deal made in 2016..The issue arises out of an announcement made almost three years ago by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, revealing that the Indian government had procured 36 Rafale jets from French aviation company Dassault. According to Poonawalla, the same was done without going through the usual practice, the formal process and procedure..The petition traces the history of the Indo-French deal for Rafale fighter jets back to 2007, when the process of procurement began. Then Defence Minister AK Antony had approved a proposal to buy 126 Rafale jets from France. Subsequently, a Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) was framed, which provided that 18 of these jets would be provided in a fly-away condition. The other 108 Rafale fighter aircrafts were to be manufactured in India..However, in April 2015, Modi would announce the procurement of 36 Rafale jets, and days later, the Defence Ministry would announce that the previous deal was scuppered..The Rafale jets, or more specifically, the cost of the same, has been the subject of political debate over the past few months. And the Centre’s refusal to reveal the cost of the jets has allowed speculation to run rife. Opposition leaders earlier this week stated that the deal has cost the Indian exchequer Rs. 12,000 crore, noting that while 36 Rafale jets were sold to India at 7.5 billion Euros in 2016, 48 jets were sold to Qatar and Egypt at 7.9 billion Euros in 2015..In light of these claims, the petition states,.“A huge amount of public money/tax payer’s money has been used for the side procurement and that the Respondents are duty bound to disclose the final agreement price to the public.”.In view of the Centre’s claims that it cannot reveal the exact cost of the deal owing to a secrecy clause in the deal between India and France, Poonawalla has urged the Supreme Court to step in. The petition states,.“…the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts was for the public purpose aimed at national security with instrumentality of Ministry of Defence and from the contribution from the public exchequer. The central government is therefore duty bound to ensure transparency in public procurements….…if the said deal is transparent, fair, bona-fide and is in public interest then the government must disclose the bi-lateral agreement signed between the two stated to the Parliament and the block price of the entire transaction.”.It also claims that the deal went without following the proper procedure..“It is relevant to state here that the course of Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) was to be followed for the fresh Defence procurement, but on the contrary, the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts was a non-comparative and a non-competitive contract, it was a single arrangement with Dassault Aviation….…the deal which was pronounced in April 2015 during the Prime Ministers state visit to France, it bypassed the entire customary Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) procedure. The deal was pronounced by side stepping the practice of getting clearance from Ministry of Defence, without getting clearance from Cabinet Committee on Security and without a competitive bidding process.”.Though the petition acknowledges that details of defence deals have been kept secret for purposes of national security before, in such situations, the broad cost of the deals have been shared..Claiming that government actions must be “in conformity with standards or norms which are not arbitrary, irrational or irrelevant”, the petition has sought a writ from the Court directing the government to disclose a consolidate transaction cost involved in procuring 36 Rafale fighter jets..It has also sought an answer as to why the government did not seek the Cabinet’s approval as part of the DPP before signing the procurement deal in September 2016. Further, the petition prays that the Centre be directed to put on record the agreement signed between it and the French government..Image taken from here.