Fact check: Did Nirmala Sitharaman say HAL not capable of producing aircrafts as Congress is claiming

Amid ongoing row over Rafale fighter-jet aircraft deal, the Congress party on Thursday said that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that HAL was not competent enough to produce aircraft.

The Congress has launched an offensive on the prime minister and his government over the Rafale deal, alleging favoritism in granting the offset contract to Reliance Defence, in violation of the rules and has accused Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" to the nation on the issue.

Referring to Nirmala Sitharaman's interview to a news channel, Congress said that the Defence Minister added insult to injury by saying that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was not competent enough to produce aircraft.

Stating that Sitharaman has added insult to injury, Congress said, "RM @nsitharaman claimed that HAL was not competent enough to produce aircrafts. #AntiNational. Clearly the RM too doesn't believe in PM Modi's #MakeInIndia dreams. Indeed if  the HAL were incompetent, why has her ministry ordered 63 more LCAs from HAL?"

"Dear RM @nsitharaman, for the umpteenth time, revealing the sum total price of the aircraft has no national security implications. It is infact, required by the CAG & PAC. It is the taxpayers money and we have every right to know," said Congress in another tweet.

"Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd identifies a huge opportunity of a staggering Rs 1000000000000 by way of their JV with Dassault. Is the Govt not aware of Dassault's partner who will be servicing IAF planes?."

Adding insult to injury, RM @nsitharaman claimed that HAL was not competent enough to produce aircrafts. #AntiNational
Clearly the RM too doesn't believe in PM Modi's #MakeInIndia dreams. Indeed if the HAL were incompetent, why has her ministry ordered 63 more LCAs from HAL?

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 16, 2018

On April 10 2015, India & France announced the agreement on the purchase of 36 planes.

Three days later, then RM @manoharparrikar said: “Modiji took the decision; I back it up.

Clearly no CCS approval had been taken before the deal was announced #Whyhttps://t.co/kPo8NWeCOz

— Congress (@INCIndia) August 16, 2018

However, speaking to news channel, Nirmal Sithataman said that HAL's production has scaled up under NDA.

"There are questions which.. why didn't you prefer HAL..... I will answer that too... In fact, if anything, I would ask the question of Congress party...Your love for HAL...The noise that is being made now, the HAL is being ignored.. If they were more interest in HAL, why didn't they sit with the French (company) and talk it out to see what is deficient about the HAL's offer and what can be done to improve it and how HAL indeed get's it. If they really had a love for HAL, at least LCA productions were increased. If you genually had a love for HAL, you could have increased that capacity, which is what we have done. We are quite actively engaed with HAL. For the love of HAL... UPA, shri Rahul Gandhi doesn't just help talking," the Defence Minister said.

“The desperation of the Opposition is clear. Congress is displaying irresponsibility. The deals can be made without middlemen. There is no basis to Congress’ claims that the prices of the Rafale are higher than at the time of UPA government," she said.

Last week, Gandhi had dared the prime minister to a debate on the Rafale deal and claimed that he will not be able to answer his questions on the issue "even for a second".

Before that, Gandhi has also termed Rafale a 'corruption of century'.

"Modiji came to power on the claim that he would wipe out corruption in the country and provide a very clean government. The Rafale scam, involving over 1.3 lakh crores of public money and designed to bail out debt-ridden corporate cronies of Modiji is symbolic of the true ‘sanskar’ of this government – 'Raam Naam Japna, Paraya Maal Apna'," Gandhi said.

Earlier,  Arun Jaitley had said that the Congress party is creating fake controversy over the issue as they have no other issue to discuss.

The grand old party has been demanding that the government share details of the Rafale fighter aircraft price as it accused the Modi government of buying them at thrice the price negotiated by the UPA government for 126 aircraft.