Double trouble: Indias opposition, France seek probe into $8.7 billion Rafale deal Author: Zaynab Khojji ID: 1625419627923994300 Sun, 2021-07-04 20:33 NEW DELHI: Indias opposition parties and civil society leaders ramped up demands on Sunday for a new review of the governments $8.7 billion deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets with France a day after the European nation ordered a judicial probe into the controversial transaction five years ago. Now the French, after a long time, have started an investigation . . . They would have had lots of prima facie evidence on the basis of which they would have taken this decision, Yashwant Sinha, a political activist who launched a 2018 petition to investigage the deal, told Arab News on Sunday. Shall we wait for the French to . . . tell us what the truth is, or should we not as a sovereign country determine it ourselves? said Sinha, who served as the foreign minister and finance minister for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government between 1999 and 2004. Several media outlets reported on Saturday that a judge had been appointed to lead a highly sensitive judicial probe ordered by the French Public Prosecution Services (PFN) into the deal, which has been embroiled in controversy ever since the government, led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, acquired the ready-to-fly fighter jets from Frances Dassault Aviation in 2016.