"He (Modi) is not a chowkidar (watchman), but bhagidar (partner, of capitalists)," Rahul Gandhi charged.
India's indigenous basic trainer aircraft, Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40), undertook its inaugural flight at the at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Airport in Bengaluru on Friday.
The Congress has launched an offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party government over the Rafale deal, alleging corruption and violation of rules by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded answers from him.
Two former union ministers have sought registration of an FIR into the fighter jet deal between India and France alleging "criminal misconduct" by high public functionaries.
Eight years after CBI filed the charge sheet in a case relating to leakage of information from Naval war room, a court today framed charges against Ravi Shankaran, Abhishek Varma and four other former senior defence officials under Official Secrets Act.
The event witnessed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Bahraini capital.
Reaching out to present and former employees of the defence PSU at an interaction with them, Gandhi said, work done by HAL for the country was tremendous and the country owed debt to it for "protecting us" and creating a scientific vision.
The defence ministry has lost sight of what it intended to achieve -- which was to nurture private defence firms that would compete on equal terms with the 9 defence PSUs and the 41 Ordnance Factory Board factories.
Leading the Opposition attack over the Adani-Hindenburg issue in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday linked Gautam Adani's meteoric rise to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coming to power and said "magic" happened after 2014 that propelled the businessman from the 609th to the second spot on the global rich list.
HAL made its point against a sceptical Indian Air Force, which opposed the HTT-40 project, blocked funding, and imported an expensive Swiss trainer rather than backing the HTT-40.
Instead of the Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40, which Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd could build, export, overhaul, upgrade and even modify into a light-attack aircraft, powerful lobbies have promoted a Swiss trainer -- the Pilatus PC-7 Mark II.
Around four lakh people who attended the event were treated to a spectacular flying display of fighter, civilian aircraft and helicopters.
The 5.8-tonne twin-engine gunship chopper is armed with air-to-air missiles, 20 mm turret guns, rocket systems and other weapons.
Parrikar also took a dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi, saying translation from Italian was not easy 'at least for the ruling side. May not be a difficult task for the Opposition'.
The Kamov-226T indigenisation has been complicated by an unusually detailed Inter-Governmental Agreement.
In the early hours of Tuesday, 12 Indian Air Force Mirage-2000 fighter jets entered Pakistani airspace and dropped 1,000-kg laser-guided bombs on Jaish-e-Mohammed terror launch pads across the Line of Control.
Gandhi said that he had already told the chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh that these states should take the lead in ushering in the second Green Revolution.
It earlier took 19 months to build a Tejas, now it takes 11 months, says HAL chief.
The two Houses were adjourned for the day amid sparring between the treasury and the opposition benches on the issue.
"They probably ran the Defence Ministry with a lot of brokers and 'dalals' in between," she said.
One of the most sought after exhibitions in Asia, as many as 549 companies are participating this year with 53 fighter aircraft on display.
Surjewala said shocking revelations have brought out lies of Sitharaman about the award of Rs 30,000 crore 'defence offset contract' to Reliance Defence as part of this deal.
'An armed helicopter equipped with counter-drone systems will provide the airborne counter-drone capability and flexibility needed to protect India's critical assets.'
Boeing is likely to vie for the deal to supply 110 fighter jets to the IAF in one of the biggest such procurement in recent years globally which could be worth over USD 15 billion.
The country's first woman defence minister sat in the rear seat behind the pilot and was wearing the pilot's G-suit.
Defence Minister A K Antony is flying down to Bangalore to award the Tejas its initial operational certificate on Friday. The Sitara's success in intensive flight-testing this year means that he could soon be making another trip to award an identical certification to the Sitara.
The defence ministry has put on hold all existing and future deals with Rolls Royce pending a CBI probe ordered into allegations of bribery and engaging middlemen in contracts worth Rs 10,000 crore for supply of aircraft engines to state-owned HAL.
Russia's Rostech State Corporation has tied up with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for manufacture of at least 200 Kamov 226T light helicopters to replace the ageing fleet of Cheetah and Chetak, in a deal estimated to be worth $1 billion under 'Make in India' initiative.
The comments came a day after Indian Air Force Chief Arup Raha said the air force has moved a proposal for inducting women as fighter aircraft pilots.
'Rafale is an open and shut case and there is only one man who has done corruption'
The Congress chief alleged that in the 2016 demonetisation exercise, black money became white, nobody went to jail and contrary to the BJP's promise, no one received Rs 15 lakh in their bank account.
HAL's HTT-40 aircraft have outperformed both Swiss Pilatus planes and the IAF's performance criteria. Why then does the IAF prefer the Pilatus to the HTT-40?
The prospects of India becoming a credible manufacturer of defence platforms or major weapon systems for export are remote, says Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The Congress has raised several questions on the Rafale deal, accusing the government of compromising with national interests.
"As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi said in his latest campaign, 'Modi hai to mumkin hai,' or 'Modi makes it possible', I'm looking forward to exploring what's possible between our people," Pompeo said in his major India policy speech at the India Ideas Summit of US-India Business Council on Wednesday.
Defence projects worth a whopping Rs 80,000 crore were on Saturday cleared by the government which decided that six submarines will be made indigenously and over 8,000 Israeli anti-tank guided missiles and 12 upgraded Dornier surveillance aircraft will be purchased.
Gandhi accused Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik of being remote-controlled by Modi
Will the IAF pay $2.4 billion to refit 80 Jaguars with powerful Honeywell engines?
Rahul accuses govt of weakening HAL to benefit Anil Ambani while Sitharaman said doubts raised over HAL contracts are misleading.
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