In what is the first rebuttal to former French President Francois Hollande, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, in a facebook post on Sunday morning, has termed Hollande statement as ‘questionable’ and added that ‘circumstances and facts’ demolish the claims.
Two days ago, Hollande had said the Reliance Defence ‘partnership’ with Dassault Aviation was entered at the suggestion of the Indian Government. Since then the Congress has been hammering away, while the BJP countered it by citing other cases of alleged corruption of the Congress but did not question Hollande or rebutted him. Jaitley’s facebook post is the first rebuttal to Hollande.
Dassault is the maker of Rafale fighter jets and India has ordered 36 jets at cost of Rs 58,000 crore. Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence is the Indian partner of Dassault and his selection criterion, ignoring the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), is the one that has been raised as by the Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Jaitley in his post said “a controversy is sought to be created on the basis of a statement made by the former French President Hollande. He cited the series of statements and questioned Hollande saying “truth cannot have two versions”.
The Indian minister said Hollande had stated that Reliance Defence ‘partnership’ with Dassault Aviation was entered at the suggestion of the Indian Government. In a subsequent statement, the former President has sought to suggest that Reliance Defence emerged on the scene after the agreement with the Indian Government was entered into. He has, in another subsequent statement, said that he is ‘not aware’ if Government ever lobbied for Reliance Defence and that ‘the partners chose themselves’.
Jaitley goes on to question Hollande saying “it may be mentioned that the former French President, Hollande, is countering statement made against him with regard to a conflict of interest in his (own) dealing with the Reliance Defence”. Jaitley without mentioning it was referring to media reports that Anil Ambani’s companies funded the film production of Hollande’s partner Julie Gayet.
“The accuracy of the statements made by the individuals may be questioned but circumstances never lie,” said Jaitley, while arguing there is no ‘partnership’, as suggested by the former President, with regard to the 36 Rafale aircraft to be supplied by Dassault Aviation to the Government of India.
It was a government-to-government agreement under which the complete weaponised aircraft are to come to the Indian Air Force. No manufacturing is to be done in India. It is, therefore, erroneous for anybody to suggest that there is a ‘partnership’ in the supply of the 36 Rafale aircrafts. The offset partner is selected entirely by the Dassault Aviation, the original equipment manufacturer, and neither the French Government and nor the Indian Government has any say in the matter,” said Jaitley.
Strange logic of Mukesh Ambani’s company
Jaitley, like his colleague Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, mentioned a February 2012 Reliance Industries Ltd MoU with Dassault Aviation. This was at a stage when the contract relating to 126 Rafale aircraft, of which 18 were to be manufactured in France and 108 in India, was at an advance stage of consideration by the UPA Government, he said, adding that “Rahul Gandhi’s misplaced criticism could equally apply to the 2012 MoU”.
The company Reliance Industries mentioned by Jaitley is owned by Mukesh Ambani, elder brother of Anil Ambani. It has no connection with Reliance Defence, a company owned by Anil Ambani, that signed the contract with Dassault as India partner after the Rafale deal was announced in April 2015. The company owned by Anil Ambani was set up just days before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France in April 2015.
