Rahul Gandhi's claims that the pricing of Rafale was less during UPA was put to rest by IAF deputy chief, who stated that the present plan was '40%' cheaper than the previous one. Earlier this year in April, while launching an attack on the government over the Rafale deal, Congress president had stated that the price of one aircraft under UPA was Rs 700 crore

by Narayan R

Time and time again, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has claimed that the pricing of Rafale contract was higher under the Narendra Modi-led NDA government as compared to the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. In the past month, every speech or tweet of his has attacked the BJP, claiming corruption in the whole deal.

But the recent statements by Indian Air Force should put to rest to all of his allegations and accusations. In an exclusive interview with Republic TV, IAF deputy chief Raghunath Nambiar has revealed that the costing of the present Rafale contract is as much as '40%' less than the previous one.
"We had many rounds of negotiations. It went on for 14 months. The Indian side was very insistent that we get a better price. The current offer is 9 percent better than the previous offer. The overall package is better than the previous one by almost 20 percent. And, we got a better payment plan of as much as of 40 percent cheaper than the previous price," he said.
Earlier this year in April, while launching an attack on the government over the Rafale deal, Congress president had stated that the price of one aircraft under UPA was Rs 700 crore, but it had increased under the NDA to Rs 1500 crore.
Though, during the no-confidence motion in July, the Congress president had quoted different prices. In the Lok Sabha, he mentioned that the cost of each jet was Rs 520 crore under Manmohan-led UPA, while it shot up to Rs 1600 crore under Narendra Modi-led NDA.
A few weeks after the failure in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi came out with yet another figure for the aircraft. This time, he claimed that the price of every Rafale jet was Rs 540 crore under Congress-led UPA's time.

The Congress supremo further confused the nation regarding the costing of Rafale, when in August during his rallies in Bidar and Hyderabad, he quoted the price of the aircraft as Rs 526 crore.

His regular changing comments on the price of the jets was highlighted by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in one of his blogs.