Rafale deal controversy

[8] In February 2014, defence minister A. K. Antony said that the procedure of calculation of life-cycle cost was being re-examined and the contract could not be signed in the fiscal year 2013-14 due to budgetary constraints.

[16] During an official visit to France in April 2015, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced that India would acquire 36 fully built Rafales citing "critical operational necessity".

[21] Unnanmed government officials quoted by Press Trust of India said that the decrease in price was due to a change in escalation formula from a fixed 3.9% to a floating rate linked to European inflation indices along with a cap of 3.5%.

[23][26] Of this 50%, 74% (approximately €2.9 billion or ₹22,200 crore) was to come from purchase of goods and services from India, which was expected to bolster the government's efforts to promote Indian defence equipment manufacturers.

[29] The joint venture was to manufacture components for Legacy Falcon 2000 series of jets such as the nose, cockpit and doors at the DRAL facility in Nagpur starting from January 2018.

[31] A couple of months later in November 2016, minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre informed the Lok Sabha that the cost of each Rafale aircraft acquired under the IGA was approximately ₹670 crore.

[35][36] Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa also denied the allegations and said that the agreement for 36 aircraft was signed with better terms than the one that was being negotiated under MMRCA tender.

[39] In November 2017, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala alleged that HAL was bypassed in the Rafale contract and questioned the presence of Anil Ambani in France during Modi's announcement to acquire 36 fully built aircraft.

[40] Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Limited denied the allegations by Surjewala and released a statement that he was present as a member of Indo-French CEO Forum.

[41] Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman denied the allegations and said that transfer of technology to HAL would not be economically feasible in a smaller contract for 36 aircraft, which was an emergency purchase to make up for a decade-long delay.

[56] In an interview with The Times of India, former chief of air staff Arup Raha said that the MMRCA deal collapsed due to disagreements between HAL and Dassault regarding costs and quality control.

[64] Dassault's CEO, Éric Trappier responded by saying that the numbers were not comparable as India's total included costs for Mirage 2000 support and the deliverables for each country was different.

[68] In May 2018, Rahul Gandhi alleged that UPA had finalised a deal to buy Rafales at ₹700 crore, but Modi cancelled the transfer of technology contract with HAL and gave it to "his friend's company", referring to Reliance Defence Limited.

[77] He said that disclosure of other elements of the cost such as India-specific enhancements would not be in national interest and cited multiple examples when ministers in the previous UPA government had refused to disclose details on similar grounds.

[83] Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Prashant Bhushan demanded a CAG audit of the Rafale deal and alleged that there was a cost escalation of ₹1,000 crore per aircraft.

[86] The Economic Times reported that the acquisition of 126 aircraft was dropped as Dassault would not be the lowest bidder if HAL were to manufacture Rafale under license, due to additional labour costs.

He wrote that the additional items required to make the aircraft operational in the earlier deal would take the total to ₹2,023 crore and as a result the IGA price was 20% lower.

[92] Air Marshal Shyam Bihari Prasad Sinha, a past member of cost negotiation committee for the older deal, said that it fell through due to irreconcilable differences between HAL and Dassault on transfer of technology and ownership of manufacturing.

[100] They also met Comptroller and Auditor General of India Rajiv Mehrishi twice on 19 September and 4 October 2018 and requested him to conduct a forensic audit on the Rafale deal.

[104] Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar said that all price details should be disclosed as Sushma Swaraj had demanded full disclosure during Bofors scandal.

[108] In August 2018, The Indian Express reported that Reliance Entertainment funded a film produced by former president of France François Hollande's partner Julie Gayet when Rafale negotiations were ongoing.

[117] In September 2018, the Supreme Court of India agreed to hear a public interest writ petition seeking cancellation of the inter-governmental agreement alleging corruption.

[120] On 14 December 2018, the court dismissed all the petitions seeking a probe into the alleged irregularities in the deal, and gave a clean chit to the Union government on all the three aspects, viz., the decision making, pricing and selection of Indian offset partner.

It also reiterated its commitment to ensure "successful production in India through Dassault Reliance Joint Venture in Nagpur as well as through a full-fledged supply chain network".

[132] The petitioners in the case, former minister Yashwant Sinha, former journalist Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, issued a press statement expressing 'shock' and 'disappointment' over the court's decision to dismiss their petitions and said that the verdict "neither addressed the documented facts nor dealt with their main prayer seeking an investigation into the deal to purchase the French fighter jets,"[133] adding that "some of the facts mentioned in the court judgment are not only not on record but are patently incorrect".

[133] While claiming that "no portion of the CAG report has been placed before Parliament or placed in the public domain," the trio accused the court of taking a "conservative view of judicial review in cases of defence deal corruption involving high functionaries.

[134] On 16 December 2018, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a "sharp attack" on Congress for its refusal to accept the Supreme Court's decision to reject the petitioners' demands of probes, and accused it of lying, saying: "The country's defence ministry is also a liar.

[135] The BJP, on the same day, announced that it would hold press conferences to "expose" the Congress for what it said was plotting conspiracy against the Modi government on the issue of Rafale deal.

[140] The ministry during the press conference had pointed to the mixing of the tenses, "perhaps on account of misinterpretation of a couple of sentences in a note handed over to this Hon'ble Court in a sealed cover."

[142][needs update] On 14 November 2019, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all the petitions seeking review of its verdict delivered on 14 December 2018 on the controversy and upheld the previous judgment stating that no irregularities or corruption have been found in the deal.