Indian Air Force Chief Birender Singh Dhanoa on Thursday said that the deal to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France was not overpriced, PTI reported. “It is not overpricing. We have negotiated for the 36 aircraft at a price lower than that in the contract,” Dhanoa said. “The government has negotiated a very good deal.”

Dhanoa stressed that it was a “government-to-government contract” and told the media that the new Rafale deal was sealed at a much lower price than the previous Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft deal for 126 aircraft. Negotiations for the previous deal had been launched by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in 2007, but the Narendra Modi government had scrapped the deal in 2015.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi had on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of altering India’s Rafale deal with France “for the benefit of one businessman”. Later on Twitter, he asked how the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence, a company with “nil experience in aerospace”, could have won the contract to execute part of the agreement. The Congress has claimed there was a “huge scam brewing” in the Rafale deal.

The Congress has also claimed that there would be no technology transfer to India under the deal, but Dhanoa debunked this. “Technology may not be going to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd but it is coming to the Defence Research and Development Organisation, and then to a lot of Indians,” he said.