The Indian Air Force has politely declined to reveal details of the 36 Rafale deal between India and French citing confidentiality.
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The Air Force refused to divulge the details of the government-to-government deal between India and France and maintained that making it available to the public could be helpful to India's enemies, PTI reported.
"Further, the information sought is also held in fiduciary capacity and no larger public interest is served by disclosure of such information. Hence, the same is denied," said the Air Force in reply to the application filed by PTI.
The query asked the defence ministry to provide the agreement copy and the price of the Rafale deal. The query was forwarded to the Air Force for a reply.
Meanwhile, the deal marked the end to India's hunt for multirole fighter aircraft. But due to disagreements in its production in India, the deal could not move ahead.
Finally, PM Narendra Modi came up with an out-of-the-box solution to see that the Indian Air Force get the much deserved multirole combat jets to fill up its depleting inventory. In April 2015, Modi's trip to Paris laid the ground work for the deal to be finally inked in September 2016.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and his French counterpart Jean Yves LeDrian signed the agreement in Delhi for 36 fighter jets worth 7.8 billion euros or about Rs 58,000 crore.
The aircraft would be customised to the requirements of the IAF that includes Helmet Mounted Displays, radar warning receiver, infrared search and track, missiles and spares.
The first Rafale will start arriving in India from September 2019 and the rest will be spread over the next two and half years. The last aircraft is expected to arrive in April 2022.
