Rahul Gandhi congratulates IAF for arrival of Rafale jets, repeats questions on deal

As India welcomes the first fleet of Rafale jets, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday, yet again raked up a controversy over the fighter jet's acquisition. While he congratulated the Indian air force on the new defence entrants, he asked Centre to answer questions about the aircraft's worth, the number of jets acquired and the Rs 30,000 crore contract awarded to Anil Ambani instead of HAL. Gandhi has repeatedly questioned the deal since the Modi government finalised the deal in 2017. 

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Gandhi rakes up Rafale controversy again

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Rafales land at Ambala airspace

In a mega boost to Indian Airforce's firepower, the five Rafale jets have landed at Indian Airforce's Ambala airbase on Wednesday. The jets took off from the Merignac airbase in French port city of Bordeaux on Monday and arrived here after covering a distance of 7,000 km with air-to-air refuelling and a single stop in the United Arab Emirates. The jets entered the Indian air space and were escorted by 2 SU30 MKIs to the airbase.

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Rahul Gandhi & Rafale deal

Gandhi has raised questions on the Rafale deal in Parliament on why only 26 aircraft were being acquired when 126 were needed. On the pricing of the Rafale jet, he had asked why it was changed from Rs 526 crore each to Rs 1600 crore each and questioned choosing Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence for the joint venture with  Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) over HAL.  These allegations were denied by then-Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, affirming that no government approvals were required for the joint venture between two private companies.

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Moreover, the Supreme 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 the deal. Gandhi then ran into trouble when he said  "Supreme Court has accepted that 'Chowkidar Chor Hai'" amid the 2019 Lok Sabha election rally, while filing his nomination papers in Amethi. After BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi filed a contempt plea against Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi admitted that he made the statements over the Rafale case verdict in the “heat of political campaigning”.