Rafale Deal: CCS approval was taken, due process followed, government tells petitioners

Following the Supreme Court direction, the Narendra Modi government on Monday handed over all the documents related to the decision-making procedure on procurement deal of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France to petitioners.

In the documents, the government claimed that the process laid down in the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 was followed in the procurement of the Rafale aircraft.

The documents, handed over to the petitioners by the government, claimed that the negotiations for the controversial Rafale aircraft deal with French government went for about one year and the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was taken before signing the agreement.

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A bunch of petitions had sought details of the decision taken by the government to procure the Rafael deal. Hearing the pleas, the Supreme Court had directed the central government to provide all the details related to the decision making on 36 Rafale fighter aircraft to the petitioners.

Earlier, there were reports that Prime Minister Modi had signed the Rafale fighter aircraft deal with France with taking the CCS in confidence. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has been single handily raising the alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal, had also made similar claims.

The government document also said that it had no role to play in choosing Anil Ambani's Reliance defence as Indian offset partner of Dassault Aviation - the French company responsible for the manufacturing of Rafale aircraft.

"As per Defence Offset Guidelines, the foreign Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is free to select any Indian company as its offset partner. This (the agreement between Reliance and Dassault) is a purely commercial arrangement between two companies," the government document read.

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Opposition parties led by the Congress chief had been alleging that the prime minister overlooked experienced state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and favoured his "businessman friend" Anil Ambani's company in getting the Rafel deal contract.