The role of middlemen in both the bidding process and the Rafale sale agreement should be probed.
The dispute ends more than a year after the first shipment of 36 Rafale fighter jets arrived from France. L’Affair Raphael The aircraft refused to die, despite the high quality of the aircraft and their fit to the requirements of the Indian Air Force, which is desperate to increase its fighter squadrons. Mediapart, a French portal, has now published a set of alleged fake invoices, and Claimed that Dassault Aviation paid middleman and defense contractor Sushen Gupta Between 2007–2012, when the Congress-led UPA was in power, over €7 million in bribes, and claims the CBI has evidence from October 2018. first check, including by HinduAmong other issues related to the Indo-French inter-governmental agreement, it had uncovered procedural violations, raised questions on the high price of fighters, choice of offset partners, removal of anti-corruption clauses, elimination of the need for bank guarantees. (IGA) was signed in 2016. Mediapart’s articles point to the dubious role of middlemen in the proposal to buy 126 aircraft, which were withdrawn, and later in 2016 at the IGA for Flyaway aircraft. In April 2021, Mediapart detailed that the French anti-corruption agency had found that Dassault had paid over one million euros In addition to paying several million euros in secret commissions to offshore accounts and shell companies – a company run by Mr. Gupta to manufacture 50 models of the Rafale – the company is not an expert in model building. It had also alleged that it had supplied classified documents related to IGA to Dassault Aviation, even as the talks between Dassault and the Indian negotiating team were deadlocked over the key issue of benchmark pricing.
In its value-revised audit report on the Rafale deal, CAG report tabled in Parliament in February 2019, examining the earlier bidding process between 2007–12, pointed to procedural violations in defense procurement – Dassault’s technical bid was rejected and later it was forced to meet bid-compliant qualitative requirements. India-specific enhancements were allowed to be included. The report also categorically states that the defense acquisition process needs to be reformed and streamlined – points which are corroborated by new revelations that highlight the role of defense intermediaries in the procurement process in favor of a particular vendor. . At least, investigative agencies like CBI and ED should probe Mr. Gupta’s role in the bidding process and IGA. The government cannot address the recurring questions about the Rafale deal and must initiate a probe into the procurement process. After all, defense preparedness and national security interests determine whether operational preparedness goes hand in hand with procedural justification in defense procurement.
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