No objection to sharing Rafale details, French prez tells Rahul: report

New Delhi: French president Emmanuel Macron, who was on India visit, is learnt to have told Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh that France does not have any objection to Indian government revealing the pricing details of the Rafale fighter jets bought by New Delhi in 2016.
Quoting sources, a report in NDTV said, Macron raised the issue during his meeting with Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh on Sunday.
Congress has been campaigning against the BJP-led NDA government over the Rs 58,000 crore deal to buy 36 fighter jets made by the French company Dassault Aviation.
Congress chief has attacked the government for not making public the prices of Rafale fighter aircraft, and charged that there was a “scam” in the deal.
The Congress claims that the price of the fighter jets was higher than what was finalised by the United Progressive Alliance government which had negotiated a deal for 126 aircrafts.
According to sources, Macron gave a positive response to Rahul Gandhi and said that France had no issues with the details of pricing being disclosed in the interest of transparency and accountability.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a response to a written question Rajya Sabha last month, had refused to share the details of the deal on the grounds of security agreement signed between India and France.
Congress sources further alleged that the government is using the 2008 security pact for non-disclosure as a fig leaf as the French President has unequivocally asserted that government did not have any issues with the disclosing of the pricing details.
India and France inked the inter-government pact for buying 36 Rafale fighters, off the shelf, on September 23, 2016, after long negotiations, agreed upon during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France in April 2015.