N Ram’s latest Rafale expose: Narendra Modi government gave unprecedented waivers in offset agreement 

A French air force Rafale fighter.

New Delhi: Veteran journalist N Ram in his latest report in the Hindu newspaper, on Tuesday, has revealed that the Cabinet Committee Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi waived certain provisions of the standard contract document of the Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 (DPP-2013) to private French companies M/s Dassault Aviation and M/s MBDA in the offset contracts of the €7.87 billion Rafale deal signed with the Indian government.

Ram’s report says the provisions of DPP-2013 concerning the provisions for arbitration (Article 9) and access to books of accounts of the industrial suppliers (Article 12) have been waived off by the Modi government. Additionally, provisions that prohibit the “Use of Undue Influence” and “Agents/ Agency Commission” of Articles 22 and 23 respectively and penalties against private industrial suppliers in case of transgressions have been exempted by the defence acquisition council (DAC) headed by the-then defence minister, Manohar Parrikar.

Interestingly, the government has not disclosed these exceptional and unprecedented waivers in its submissions to the Supreme Court, states the report.

The Hindu report has also revealed that the Indian negotiation team (INT) has repeatedly asked the French suppliers to agree to the alignment of Article 9 of the offset contract with Article 21A of Chapter V of the Standard Contract Document of DPP-2013 that demands disputes between two parties to be settles through direct negotiations and in case of failure, after 24 months, it will be settled in accordance with the arbitration clause of the supply protocols. However, Dassault Aviation and MBDA had refused to comply.

Ram, in his report, has clarified that his current series of investigative articles do not doubt the quality of the Rafale or about the need to modernize the Indian Air Force. Earlier, N Ram has reported that the Modi-government had intentionally waived provisions for anti-corruption penalties before signing the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) and how the PMO conducted parallel negotiations with French government undermining the negotiating position of MoD and INT.

He also exposed in his report in February that three senior defence ministry officials who were also the domain experts on the INT of Rafale deal had confessed that the new Rafale deal of 36 jet aircrafts was not on “better terms” than the offer made by Dassault Aviation during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for 126 warplanes.

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