By
Nitya Chakraborty
The die is cast. There is no escape
route for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come out unscathed from the Rs.
58,000 crore Rafale scam. The report in
The Hindu newspaper of February 8 makes it abundantly clear that it was the
Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) which conducted the crucial negotiations for
finalisng the deal relating to the purchase of 36 Rafale jets from the French
company Dassault overruling the prolonged negotiations carried out by the
Defence Ministry and also the PMO finalized the deal by ignoring serious
objections made by the Defence Ministry.
The critical observations made by the
Defence Ministry officials against the PMO intervention make it clear that the
Modi Government misled the Supreme Court by stating in its submission in the
sealed cover that the deal was made by observing all procedures under the
Defence Procurement Policy and no intervention was made by the PMO and the
Prime Minister himself. The very basis of the Government submission has now
found to be untrue and this vindicates the demand of the lawyers like Indira
Jaising and Prashant Bhushan for recall of the judgment by the Supreme Court
since the facts given in the sealed cover by the Attorney General, have been
found to be misleading and these are the facts on the basis of which the apex
Court arrived at their decision.
The Hindu report clearly shows at the
height of the negotiations over the controversial €7.87 billion Rafale deal
between India and France, the Defence Ministry raised strong objections to
“parallel negotiations” conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the
French side. Stating that it was clear that such parallel discussions by the
PMO had “weakened the negotiating position of MoD and Indian Negotiating Team,”
a Defence Ministry note dated November 24, 2015 brought this to the attention
of the then Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar.
Stating that “we may advise PMO that
any Officers who are not part of Indian Negotiating Team may refrain from
having parallel parlays [parleys] with the officers of French Government,” it
suggested that “in case the PMO is not confident about the outcome of
negotiations being carried out by the MoD, a revised modality of negotiations
to be led by PMO at appropriate level may be adopted in the case.”
According to the government’s
submission to the Supreme Court of India in October 2018, the negotiations over
the Rafale deal were conducted by a seven-member team headed by the Deputy
Chief of Air Staff. There was no mention of any role for the PMO in these
negotiations.
Official documents available to The
Hindu reveal, however, that the Defence Ministry protested that the position
taken by the PMO was “contradictory to the stand taken by MoD and the
negotiating team.” The then Defence Secretary, G. Mohan Kumar, made this official
notation in his own hand: “RM may pl. see. It is desirable that such
discussions be avoided by the PMO as it undermines our negotiating position
seriously.”
The Defence Secretary’s firm
opposition was recorded on November 24, 2015 on a note prepared by S. K.
Sharma, Deputy Secretary (Air-II), and endorsed by the Joint Secretary &
Acquisition Manager (Air) and the Director General (Acquisition) in the
Ministry.
The new Rafale deal, which bore little
resemblance to the original deal under prolonged negotiation, was announced in
Paris by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 10, 2015. This was followed by
the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between India and France when
President Francois Hollande visited Delhi on the occasion of the Republic Day
in 2016. The inter-governmental agreement for 36 Rafale fighter jets was
eventually signed on September 23, 2016.
According to the Defence Ministry
note, the details of the parallel negotiations conducted by the PMO came to the
Ministry’s notice only from a letter of October 23, 2015 from General Stephen
Reb, the head of the French Negotiating Team. The letter “made mention of a
telephonic conversation between Shri Jawed Ashraf, Joint Secretary in the Prime
Minister’s Office and Mr. Luis Vassy, Diplomatic Adviser to the French Minister
of Defence, which took place on 20.10.2015.”
Citing “a glaring example”, the
Defence Ministry note pointed out that General Reb in his letter had stated
that “taking into consideration the outcome of discussions between Diplomatic
Adviser to the French Defence Minister and Joint Secretary to PM, no Bank
Guarantee is provisioned in the supply protocol and the letter of comfort
provides sufficient assurances of the proper implementation of the supply
protocol by the industrial suppliers.”
This, the note stated, was “contrary
to the position taken by the MoD and conveyed by Indian Negotiating Team that
the commercial offer should be preferably backed by Sovereign/Government
Guarantee or otherwise by Bank Guarantee.” Another instance of a contrary stand
taken in the parallel negotiations was on the arbitration arrangement, the note
pointed out.
Thus it is clear that on all crucial
issues, the PMO took a position contrary to India’s national interests
overruling the concerns of the Defence Ministry. What more proof does the
Supreme Court want? (IPA Service)
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