Further, adding, yes Rafale is technogicaly better plane, but few things
a) Item 30 would start production from next year, and as per news by 2018, PAKFA with item 30 engines should be available
b) Rafale is way ahead of anything in our neighbourhood is a sheer irresponsible statement, What are you aware of the Chinese developments? Just to give you a point, China is going for two 5th Gen projects, Where as France is developing a few techs and putting them on Rafale and pimping them as 5th Gen planes. So, when you dont know about what technology China has, its stupid to assume that they would still be armed with 19th Century weapons. For example there is a new product called Graphene, and China has more patents filed for it than USA and UK combined.
c) By the way, we dont have Rafale, its still only in France, we have paid the installment and the planes are being produced, so as of now, w have ZERO Rafale. How many Rafales available with IAF if we want to strike Pakistan tomorrow ? ZERO
d) When you compare Rafale with Su-35 or Eurofighter, In few recent exercises, Indian Su-30 MKI beat Eurofighters in UK (and it became a big news) and Rafale in Rajasthan, And just to point it out to you, Su-35 outperforms Su-30 MKI in big way, the plane has better engine with higher thrust, So simply saying Su-35 is more capable than Su-30 MKI., And Su-30 MKI beat the eurocanards,. So get your comparison correct.
Further to a point , a few months back in Syria, when Russians sent their Su-30 SM to Syria, France quietly limited the flights of its Rafales into Iraq only, avoiding Syria entirely. Before he Russians came with their Su-30 SM, the French were conducting operations in Iraq and Syria.
Rafale is the wet dream of IAF chiefs and so even when govt was in discussions with Dassault, it was IAF chiefs which were giving some interviews out of line like saying "there is no plan B" in a way their actions look similar to sickulars who went to meet the Hurriyat guys for talking Peace after surgical strikes
PAKFA is not going to be cheap, but not expensive as Rafale,.Further its a purpose built 5th Gen plane unlike Rafale which is actually a development that started with Mirage III (Mirage III >>> Mirage 2000 >>> Mirage 4000 >> Rafale ) Rafale does not have shaping of 5th Gen plane but depends on jammers for its "stealth" unfortunately Electronic stealth can be defeated. Just need better avionics with good power which fortunately the Russians have.
For IAF, they need LCA MK1A and Mk2 and not Gripen. Sure we need the EW suite of Gripen. We also need say 150 PAKFA/FGFA and then develop AMCA and then get those to replace Jaguars, Mirage 2000 and MiG-29
We already have SU-30 for air superiority role. So we are covered on that front. Lets focus on upgrading our Sukhoi fleet to super Sukhoi standards. No need to spend money on Pak Fa. At least with FGFA we were getting our hands on some Russian tech(that might've been useful for AMCA) but buying Pak-Fa straight from Russia will get us nothing.
Rafale is a capable multi-role, network centric fighter with modern data link, that outclasses anything we have in our neighbourhood. Rafale is combat proven, reliable platform. What is combat experience of Chini 5th gen jet, even Pak-Fa is a paper tiger at this point. It will take many years to get item-30 engine and many years after that for FOC and many years after that for production to complete. Pak-Fa is no way a stop gap solution.
We already bought 36 Rafale so it makes sense to buy more, also Rafale-M could be IN's choice. A joint order between IAF and IA makes lot of sense.
When it comes to technology Rafael is way ahead of anything China has in their inventory. Even better than SU-35 or Eurofighter. There is a reason why IAF is so desperate for this jet. Only issue that is holding back the deal is price and TOT. Talking about price, PAK-FA isn't cheap either. Russia is pressing us to buy big numbers while they themselves are only buying one squad. In other words they want us to bare all development and production cost of the plane.
Geopolitically speaking, China is now officially Russia's closest ally. Do you think in time of was Russia will let us use Pak-Fa against their closest ally? Do you think we will get spares for Pak-Fa from Russia if big brother China says no? This isn't 1971, Russia's fossil fuel driven economy is now heavily reliant on China's big market. Some reports even indicate that China is acting more like big brother to Russia. From now on we should be very careful when dealing with Russians.
I hope this makes everything clear. Rafale and Gripen are way to go for IAF's immediate requirements and AMCA for long term.