The Indian negotiating team firmed up the deal for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from French company Dassault through an inter-governmental agreement. Sources privy to the report said it includes 11 acquisitions made by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The purchase of 36 Rafale jets from France is one part of the CAG report

A report by the CAG on Rafale is likely to be tabled in Parliament today. The report evaluates the deal on all parameters for defence purchases. The Opposition has accused the Modi government of irregularities in the Rafale deal

by Rahul Shrivastava

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the Rafale deal that will be tabled in Parliament today does not mention the exact pricing of the Rafale fighter jets, sources in the CAG have told India Today TV.

Sources privy to the report said it includes 11 acquisitions made by the Indian Air Force (IAF). The purchase of 36 Rafale jets from France is one part of the CAG report.

Details of pricing of the Rafale fighter jets gain importance because the Congress and the Narendra Modi government have been at loggerheads over this issue. The Congress has been alleging that the Modi government signed a deal that escalated the price of Rafale jets manifolds. It had been accusing the prime minister of being personally involved in the irregularities in the Rafale deal. The Congress’s allegations range from favouritism, crony capitalism to compromising the Air Force’s fighting capabilities. These charges have been summarily rejected by the Modi government time and again.

Sources in the CAG have told India Today TV that CAG report that will be tabled today evaluates the Rafale deal on all parameters for defence purchases.

Besides this, the sources said that the report also provides a comparative evaluation of the deal.

To add on to the worries of the Modi government, on Monday The Hindu published a report where it claimed it has documentary evidence showing that the Modi government scrapped the anti-corruption clauses in the Rafale deal before signing it.

In another report last week, the newspaper had claimed that the defence ministry had sent a strongly worded not to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) objecting to "parallel negotiations" being held by the PMO with the French side. The defence ministry, according to The Hindu, said this was compromising its negotiating power in the deal. On the other hand, the government countered the claim made by The Hindu saying the note produced by the newspaper was "cropped" to hide the comments written on it by then defence minister Manohar Parrikar.

CAG Report And Its Political Optics

The CAG report on the Rafale deal is expected to be another flash point between the Congress and the Narendra Modi government. On Monday, the Congress demanded that CAJ Rajiv Mehrishi should recuse himself from the report because he has a "conflict of interest" on the grounds that as finance secretary, he was part of the team that signed the Rafale deal in 2015.

Last year, a Congress delegation had approached the CA to hasten its report on the Rafale deal. If the report touched upon the alleged irregularities in the pricing of Rafale jets, the Congress would have found fresh ammunition to attack the BJP in an election year. The Congress would have liked to keep the momentum against PM Modi using its allegations of wrongdoings in the Rafale deal.

As per procedure, the CAG report has to be presented in Parliament and then sent to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for examination.

However, with barely a couple of months left for the Lok Sabha elections, the PAC may not have sufficient time to put the report through the usual scrutiny. The term of the PAC will end with the current Lok Sabha.

At present, the PAC is headed by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge. He may find it difficult to create and adopt a report on the CAG report submitted to it because a majority of the members of PAC are from the BJP.