FLASH India Finalises Rafale Deal At $8.8 Billion?

Has India finalised its deal for 36 Rafale fighters at a contract value of $8.8 billion? The MoD was quick to advise a couple of recent media reports not to 'jump the gun' that a deal had finally been reached -- and no official comment is out yet on the deal. But the ruling party of India's government, the BJP, posted the image on the left a few hours ago on its official Facebook page.

This is perplexing at several levels. For starters, the infographic explicitly mentions that the deal has been 'finalised', something the MoD refuted only 72 hours ago. The message also looks to address continuing concerns that the Rafale deal was too heavy to handle -- the BJP says here that the Modi government has successfully 're-negotiated' the deal and saved an estimated $3.2 billion, bringing the contract value down from an earlier $12 billion.

Right off the bat, that's Prime Minister Modi's photograph up there on the image. The message is simple: it was the Prime Minister (and his visit to France in April last year) who saved a deal that was in a doomed spiral of cost. The credit, the BJP is saying here, goes to the PM who ensured India got a tight deal even after scaling down the jet requirement from 126 to a measly couple of squadrons, 36 aircraft. It was leadership that saw the deal done -- that's the clear message from the BJP here, not the endless bureaucrat-led negotiations, not the multiple levels of international intrigue and instances of delegations flinging rules and books at each other, not about brinkmanship in numbers. Just cold, hard leadership. We'll only know how true that is once we get the details.

The Rafale deal has had a turbulent ride in India. So, right now it's about waiting to see if the MoD feels the party that rules India's government has 'jumped the gun'.

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