Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today resorted to a point-by-point rebuttal of the Rafale deal in Lok Sabha countering the accusations of Congress. She accused the Congress of scrapping an earlier deal when it was in power because it "didn't get the money" and ignored social security in favour of its "treasury security".
The Congress accused that the BJP-led government scrapped a deal for 126 aircraft negotiated by the previous UPA government to go for an overpriced deal for 36 aircraft only to help Anil Ambani, whose inexperienced defence company bagged an offset contract with Dassault. Ms Sitharaman said the assumption that the Rafale fighters were available off the shelf was "mistaken", referring to the 126 aircraft deal. Eighteen of those jets were to be delivered in fly-away condition. She also that "Bofors was a scam, Rafale is not. It will bring PM Modi back to power."
