After disappearing briefly for a week or two, the Rafale headlines have hit the stand again. Much of the credit for this indeed goes to PM Modi, who last week said that India has felt the absence of Rafale fighter jets. He said if previous governments had purchased the Rafale jet the result would have been different. He was speaking in the context of the aerial combat between India’s MiG 21 Bison and Pakistan’s f16. Since the incident captured international attention as well, criticism started pouring in over Indian military’s vintage equipment. Now, coming back to Rafale deal, PM Modi criticised the Congress party for not providing updated weaponry to the armed forces and creating controversy over the Rafale deal that started in the UPA era, however, was finalised by the Modi government which in fact was a new deal altogether. This rafale commentary was putting the opposition in the dock for raising the questions over the NDA era deal. But on Wednesday, the government found itself under the radar over Rafale deal. Reason: The Hindu’s report explaining how no bank guarantee led to expensive rafale deal under the Modi government. It is the third in The Hindu’s series focusing on the deal, reported by N Ram. We have tried to simplify the information in the report for our viewers in the editorial. The core point of the report was, despite getting no bank guarantee or even sovereign guarantee by the French side, the new rafale deal was expensive.
Now, let us come to the second reason, which is the topic we will be focusing on, in this video.
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