Come what may, mudslinging on Rafale to continue till 2019 Lok Sabha elections

New Delhi, Nov 14: The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are fighting more of a perception battle than the issue of corruption in the Rafale jet deal. If Congress president Rahul Gandhi has once again accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi on this issue by saying that he admitted his theft before the Supreme Court then the BJP accused Rahul Gandhi as a failed politician spreading falsehood. But will the Congress be able to sustain this for long as new developments have once again questioned the seriousness of the Congress on the issue or the BJP will be able to come out clean.

The matter is not going to be decided any time soon at least politically. It will be shorted out in the electoral battle whichever party is able to create a perception will emerge victorious in elections will claim the final victory. So elections in five states are under process and by the time this process ends, the process for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections would start. So as far as the Congress is concerned it is well on the war path to embarrass the Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government which came to power on providing the clean government.

Major issues discussed in this matter included details of pricing and procedural issue that have been handed over the Supreme Court, the issue of Reliance has been answered by Dassault CEO Éric Trappier and as far as HAL is concerned, politicians were avoiding to say anything about its competence but former Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal R K Sharma who was involved in the process of acquiring Rafale clearly stated that if the ministry, the government and the company supplying the jet is saying that these jets were given at 9 per cent cheaper there was no reason for not believing unless some other facts were given.

He said, "As far a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is concerned, it was hesitant to go into deal for not having the capacity to built such hi-tech fifth generation aircraft that will be serving Indian Air Force for the next forty years. Actually Indian Air Force far too more suffered due to the HAL and it certainly is nobody to say if it can take offset or not." But this could be the factual position but perception goes beyond this when Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi: "The picture is still to come my friend."

Gandhi tagged a media report, alleging that the government in its affidavit before the SC has thrown up more 'wrong doings' in the jet deal. Meanwhile, the government disclosed to the Apex Court the pricing details for the 36 Rafale jets negotiated on "better terms" and said it "completely followed" the Defence Procurement Procedure laid out in 2013. It also secured approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security. In a 14-page document submitted to the court, the Centre provided every detail sought from it.

Defending the government, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi's failed politics is compelling him to resort to 'falsehood' to make the sensitive Rafale purchase defence deal controversial. The UPA delayed the purchase of the Rafale aircraft which was necessary to improve the combat ability of Indian Air Force. Jaitley said that 'falsehood' cannot be a substitute for "failed politics" of Gandhi.

The BJP leadership is saying that the Congress will not be able to withstand its ground as it does not have any fact about the government having done any wrong doing in Rafale jet deal. The issue will be taken to people as the Congress not only compromised with the security of the country when it was in the government and now it is playing in the hands of its masters everywhere.