Rafale will bring Modi back to power, Nirmala Sitharaman tells Lok Sabha

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied for nearly two hours to a heated debate on the Rafale jet deal in Parliament, accusing the Congress of abandoning an earlier deal for 126 jets while in power because it did not get money, and of putting what she called treasury security ahead of national security.

Sitharaman’s reply

Referring to the Bofors scandal that broke in 1986, when Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi’s father, headed the government, she said: “Bofors was a scam and Rafale is not a scam.” She said the Congress had lost an election because of Bofors and that Rafale would return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power.

She alleged the Congress-era deal collapsed because it did not suit the party, and contrasted a defence deal with dealing in defence, saying her government put national security first. She cited last month’s Supreme Court ruling clearing the government’s Rafale decision-making. She also said the government’s deal was cheaper, putting the price of the basic aircraft at Rs 670 crore against Rs 737 crore under the UPA deal, and said the first Rafale would be delivered in September 2019 and the last of the 36 jets in 2022, unlike the earlier deal, which never went through.

Rahul Gandhi’s charge

Rahul Gandhi responded by accusing the Prime Minister directly. “I am accusing Narendra Modi of involvement in the Rafale scam,” he said, adding that he was not accusing the defence minister. The Congress has alleged that Modi chose a fresh, inflated deal for 36 aircraft so that Anil Ambani could secure an offset contract of Rs 30,000 crore, a charge that was central to its campaign in the recent elections in which it won three BJP-ruled states. Gandhi used the initials AA when repeating the allegation on Wednesday, and on Friday the government repeated that it played no part in selecting offset partners.

What happened next

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election the BJP won 303 of 543 seats and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019.

See also: Bharatiya Janata Party · Indian National Congress

Originally published on 5 January 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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