Is it simply a political game? Or are the GoI and French Govt being shrewd by trying to keep the far bigger deal under wraps (to the greatest extent possible) to insulate it from the propaganda and outright smear campaign that has plagued the Rafale contract from 2011?
Correct answer would be both, old boy!
Politics as in internal to Bharat also being part of "insulating it from propaganda".
I hope that I will shock few people by noting that Indians love discussing deals.
In fact, some both in GoI and the general public like discussing problems more
than achieving solutions or so it seems. To the point where I sometimes wonde-
red if they made a cut on the cash generated by those convos.
Like an IT start-up value?
Knowing how its people react is IMHoO the motivation for NaMO/MP to do so.
By keeping the two parts of an acquisition separate in the media as CNL-PN-AA
mentioned ( "secret deal stuff" ), the present Indian leadership defends its ways.
Those like a new member who have an Indian centric vision so exaggerated that
it borders on schizophrenia won't be able to attack both parts of the equation as
they would in a common package.
If both parts of that deal were to fail or succeed, nothing is gained but if one garners
more opposition [ say the high price of only 36 planes ] the other won't follow suite
or at least not de facto.
This may seem like a lot of trouble to influence perceptions but consider this :
- Quite a few Indians believe what they once thought validates what they think in a
vicious circle, as found again yesterday while reading a sadly renowned national forum.
To the point where a litany of woes and bad intent was credited to the other side and
since they trust themselves so much, ended with an incessant list of insults to France.
No amount of reality can silence these but they still talk and they still vote.
- Then the habit of catering to the views of such weirdos is so pregnant in the land that
no amount of explaining will do and answering -"That's ridiculous" only loses one votes.
- And since the "conspi-tasy" crowd never sleeps, GoI has to dance a three person tango.
To avoid this awkward attempt, it is easier to let the rumours float out to sea than to clean
the beaches by hand and truth which explains why the MMRCA losers were allowed to
chat on. This way, GoI can tango to success while the dreamers jerk with the losers.
- Thus, keeping the harshest part of negotiations under wrap minimizes critics' opinion.
By the time things clear up in those muddled minds, the Rafales will be nearing retirement,
Namo will have left politics and the lingering noise made into books in the fiction section.
I find this to be a shrewd way of implementing a need while delaying f
riction. Go NaMo!
And a great day to you my mate, Tay.
P.S.
I don't buy the penultimate point where PM asks for recheck. This is how not things work or at least they didn't used to.
It's like a double pass on erasing hard drives, sort of. If the committees get one check, they
can later claim to have been swindled by nefarious ( added ) details.
If they get a second look and find nothing wrong, they'll be silenced less they admit to incompetency.
but then the matter is pending for years and is hardly an emergency.
It is an emergency
precisely because it has been pending for years.
Once India gets that, procurements will become
almost as easy as for everyone else?