If NDA loses power and congress comes back again IAF is going to walk up to GOI and say we need more rafales after all the 60 are purchased by now.
SO we are going to buy additional rafales at much higher cost with no hope of even nominal sovergin control over any item in rafale.
So what happens is IAF which could easily have had more than 6 squadrons of tejas +Su-30 MKI combined will be having just 3 squadrons of rafale at much higher price.
And the same saga will once again be repeated with respect to AMCA vs FGFA.
Zee News had the following headline and for a second I was downcast that Modi will sell out on LCA.
PM Narendra Modi in Paris - LIVE: India to buy 36 Rafale jets, France to help develop three smart cities | Zee News
Zee News : PM Narendra Modi in Paris - LIVE: Rafale deal struck, France to invest 2 billion Euros in India
Turned out the 2 billion euros are mentioned in the general context of smart cities that the NDA-2 wants to develop.
fullstory
France to invest 2 billion euros in India
SharePrint Print E-mailComments Comment[ - ] Text [ + ] 22:28 HRS IST
From Ajay Kaul
Paris, Apr 10 (PTI) France today announced an investment of 2 billion euros (about USD 1 billion) in India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited French companies to pump in money in technology in the fastest growing economy.
France will invest 2 billion euros in India, President Francois Hollande announced at a CEO forum here.
Inviting French investors, Modi said, "There is no bigger market than India. It is also the fastest growing economy since the last six months.
I think our Main Stream Media Morons took it to mean 2 billion euros for the new line for Rafale and hence from there they extrapolated on a wrong input to 108 extra.
Rejoice bhai. Modi has listened to what Bharat Karnard and you were saying. And all this was done with perfect FUD in enemy camp. Congress is busy with Jahanpanah Nehru snooping on Neta ji, expose. Subu Swamy as usual is creating terrible FUD among the ghor anti-Rafale by trail balooning the silly court case route.
So this is what actually seems to have happened.
1) MMRCA quitely buried. Negotiations to be stretched till kingdom come or till Modi gets the balls to say 'The End' without having to facce the histrionics of MSM and euro.
2) We actually needed only the Rafales needed for the gap in capabilities due to numbers fall. Most likely around 60. Off course if IAF is given all 60 today they will cry like a baby for more tomorrow. So the requirement gets split for 36 plus negotiations for extra 24 odd. That is if IAF plays ball and puts in a bigger number for LCA Mk-1.
3) We had heard how 12 billion USD were offered to Indian businesses to strike up the line for LCA. Nothing was heard of it. Most likely these Indian business houses were in turn contacted by interested parties to go slow and hence they too would have to be 'convinced'. Sama, dana, danda, bhed, indrajal, maya, upeksha will be deployed in full force and most likely we will hear of these private business houses investing in LCA Mk-2 in a big way. LCA Mk-1 in that case with or without additional order will be made only by HAL.
4) Since there is absolute possibility of IAF playing hard ball after taking the first 36, Modi would be best advised to create these lines and incur sunk costs from the national budget to make LCA line a national issue. So even the Congressis cannot touch it after these have been established. And I am hopeful that is exactly what is going to happen.
Too many presumptions but I am afraid this is my best judgement assessment.
I think you should go relax now. You will see more LCAs and AMCAs in IAF than everything else put together, 20 years down the line.
Remember Agni TD. 20 years is not too long for a true saffron jingo.
