Congress president Rahul Gandhi continued to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal, accusing him of “treason” and violating the Official Secrets Act by allegedly acting as industrialist Anil Ambani’s “middleman” in the Rafale contract.
In his second Press conference in less than a week on the controversy, Rahul came out with a fresh allegation and shared an email to claim Anil Ambani was aware of the deal days before India and France finalised it.
Ambani’s Reliance Defence, however, said the “proposed MoU” mentioned in a purported email cited by the Congress president was a reference to its cooperation with Airbus Helicopter and had “no connection” with the Rafale fighter jet contract.
The BJP dismissed the allegations as height of shamelessness and irresponsibility on the part of the Congress president, and asserted that the e-mail he cited to criticise the Prime Minister referred to some chopper deal and not the purchase of the fighter aircraft.
Rahul Gandhi released to the media an email dated March 28, 2015 purportedly written by Airbus executive Nicolas Chamussy to three recipients with the subject line “Ambani”. He claimed the email showed Ambani visited then French Defence Minister
Jean-Yves Le Drian’s office and mentioned an “MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit (to France)”.
The Congress president asked how Ambani knew about the deal and mentioned it in the French Defence Minister’s office when even then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had no information on it. The Congress president also rejected the Comptroller and Auditor General report on the Rafale deal, and dubbed it “Chowkidar Auditor General” report.
“This is a breach of the Official Secrets Act. The Prime Minister who is the only other person who knows about the deal has informed Anil Ambani about the deal. The Prime Minister is acting as Anil Ambani’s middleman,” Rahul alleged and called for a criminal investigation into the matter.
According to Rahul, it was earlier an issue of corruption, of procedural inconsistencies but was now a matter related to the Official Secrets Act which he said was “much more serious”.
“This is now treason, nothing less. Mr Narendra Modi is doing what spies do. He is informing somebody of defence matters, he is under oath to protect these secrets. He has now given this secret to Mr Anil Ambani who knows that the biggest defence deal in the world is going to him 10 days before the deal...This itself is criminal, this itself will put the Prime Minister in jail,” the Congress chief said.
At the Press conference at AICC, Rahul reiterated that there will no doubt in anybody’s mind that the Prime Minister is a “corrupt man” and he has helped Anil Ambani. He read out the email to the media quoting it as saying that Ambani visited the French Defence Minister’s office and “told them he intends to work with AH (Airbus Helicopters) on commercial helos and then on defence. Mentioned (an) MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit”.
“This is literally handing over a defence secret...The Prime Minister has compromised national security. He has done what a spy does. He has given defence information to a person who is not supposed to have it,” Rahul alleged.
Reacting to the Congress allegations, Anil Ambani’s group said the discussion on proposed MoU was clearly with reference to cooperation between Airbus Helicopter and Reliance. “It had no connection whatsoever with Government to Government Agreement between France and India for 36 Rafale aircraft. It is in public domain that Airbus Helicopter has partnered with Mahindra for the Military Helicopter Programme,” the Reliance Defence spokesperson said.
“Purported email being referred by the Congress Party is regarding the discussion between Airbus and Reliance Defence regarding Civil & Defence Helicopter Programmes under ‘Make in India’,” said the Reliance Defence spokesperson in a statement.
“Also, for the record, the MoU for Rafale aircraft was signed between France and India on January 25 2016 and not in April 2015. From the above, it is evident that the facts are being deliberately twisted and reality being ignored,” the company said.