Why AK Antony Should Be The Last Person On Earth To Criticise The Rafale Deal

AK Antony’s record as defence minister of India from 2006 to 2014 is nothing to write home about. The Congress MP from Kerala has been criticised as the worst ever defence minister even by pro-Congress journalists. His penchant for banning arms vendors on flimsy grounds led to a comical (and tragic) situation where India banned almost every vendor of weapon systems it was desperately looking to buy. His refusal for timely clearance of tenders has directly led to the grounding of costly defence equipment including at least one Kilo-class submarine. “The monetary penalty alone is thousands of crores a year” is how one defence journalist described the side-effects of AK Antony’s antics at the defence ministry.

Yet, despite his inglorious record, AK Antony has come out to criticise the recently signed Rafale deal. He targeted the government today, accusing it of not buying enough planes and failing to convince France to license produce the aircraft in India. But what if AK Antony is responsible for the current government’s inability to buy more and license produce the jets locally?

A quick background: The current government-to-government deal for 36 Rafale jets was taken up only after the government realised that the deal for buying Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) was going nowhere. AK Antony was the man responsible for conception and coordination of this deal since he took over as defence minister. Here is how he messed up the MMRCA process.

First, thanks to a protracted procurement process including trials, convoluted offset negotiations and other sundry processes instituted by AK Antony led Defence Ministry, the cost of the MMRCA tender shot-up 2.7 times. Incumbent Defence Minister, Manohar Parikkar, candidly admitted that the deal was “way too expensive” and that the purchase of 126 aircraft was “a very steep slope to climb financially”.

Second, the cost wasn’t the only trouble with this UPA era deal. According to the MMRCA proposal, the vendor was to assist with the licensed production of these jets in India. But this question of local production, which AK Antony raised today, had stalled negotiations for months. The French vendor Dassault, who won the contract, was simply unwilling to stand guarantee for Rafale jets manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

How could India go ahead with a purchase ignoring one of the key clauses in the original proposal document? The same AK Antony would have cried hoarse about a major scam, right?

Both the roadblocks in the deal - cost and local production - were the handiwork of an over-zealous defence ministry who was more concerned about his clean image than for timely acquisition. An out-dated acquisition process, impossible conditions and an unwillingness to understand the nature of military procurement gravely threatened national security by causing inordinate delays in acquiring merely 126 aircraft.

The recent deal for 36 jets, if anything, is a stop-gap and damage control exercise. AK Antony must be the last person on earth to criticise it.