India / Is CAG report on Rafale the opening of a can of worms?: Chidambaram

New Delhi: Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday criticised the Centre for the Rafale deal, after a Comptroller and Auditor General report showed that French aerospace major Dassault Aviation and European missile maker MBDA had not yet confirmed the transfer of technology to the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The senior leader asked whether the report was the “opening of a can of worms”.

“CAG finds that the vendors of the Rafale aircraft have not confirmed the transfer of technology under the offset contract,” Chidambaram said in a tweet. “The offset obligations should have started on 23-9-2019 and the first annual commitment should have been completed by 23-9–2020, that is yesterday [Wednesday]. Will the government say if that obligation was fulfilled? Is the CAG report the opening of a can of worms?”

CAG finds that the vendors of the Rafale aircraft have not confirmed the transfer of technology under the offset contract

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) September 24, 2020

"The offset obligations should have started on 23-9-2019 and the first annual commitment should have been completed by 23-9-2020, that is yesterday. Will the government say if that obligation was fulfilled? Is the CAG report the opening of a can of worms? (sic)," Mr Chidambaram said in another post, criticising the government. 

In its report, the CAG pointed out: "In the offset of four contracts relating to 36 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), the vendors Dassault Aviation and MBDA initially proposed (September 2015) to discharge 30 per cent of their offset obligation by offering high technology to DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation)." 

"DRDO wanted to obtain technical assistance for indigenous development of engine (Kaveri) for the Light Combat Aircraft. Till date the vendor has not confirmed the transfer of this technology," the national audit watchdog further underlined, adding that the Defence Ministry's policy of offsets has "not yielded the desired result." 

"The (Defence) Ministry needs to review the policy and its implementation. It needs to identify the constraints faced by the foreign suppliers as well as the Indian industry in leveraging the offsets, and find solutions to overcome these constraints," the report further stresses.

The Rafale deal

The Rafale jets are India’s first major acquisition of fighter planes in over two decades. It came four years after the Narendra Modi government signed a deal with France for a total of 36 units. All the 36 jets are to be delivered by 2022.

The deal had become a major political topic during the Lok Sabha election campaign last year. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, among others, had accused Modi of treason and corruption multiple times, and alleged that he had acted as a middleman for industrialist Anil Ambani in the deal.

The first Rafale fighter jet was handed over to the Indian Air Force on October 8, 2019, in France, in a ceremony attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The jets were formally inducted into the fleet on September 10.