Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday mounted a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale deal and also claimed that his industrialist friend Anil Ambani received a kickback of Rs 284 crore from the French firm Dassault Aviation in the jet fighter purchase deal.
The Anil Ambani- headed Reliance group has flayed Rahul and said he has once again resorted to blatant lies and distorted facts to unleash an unwarranted campaign of calumny and falsehoods.
Rahul alleged that the CEO of Dassault Aviation gave Rs 284 crore to loss-making Reliance Group of Ambani. He also alleged that CBI chief Alok Verma was recently removed as he wanted to investigate the deal.
Without naming anyone in his second consecutive Press conference, Rahul said the CEO of the French aviation firm, Éric Trappier, is “lying” because he is shielding the “only one man — the one who is running the country”.
Rahul quoted Trappier in media reports saying the reason Ambani’s firm was given the offset contract and not state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was that it had land for the project.
Rahul alleged that the land was purchased by Ambani’s company with the money that Dassault gave.
Reliance group has, however, said Congress president is engaging in falsehood and there are no substance in any of the charges of kickback he has levelled against Anil Ambani.
The Gandhi scion reiterated his attack on the PM and said the Rafale deal is an open and shut case. “It was a partnership between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani,” Rahul said
“The Dassault CEO had said the reason HAL wasn’t given the contract was because Anil had land. Now it turns out that the land that Anil had was purchased by money given by Dassault,” Rahul said at AICC Press conference.
Rahul said the PM is having “sleepless nights” fearing action if a probe was conducted into the Rafale deal.
Trashing Rahul’s allegations, Reliance said Congress is “distorting” facts to mount an “unwarranted” campaign against the company for political gains. In a statement, Reliance said the company and its chief Anil were continuously being dragged into a political battle in view of the impending state and general elections.
“Dassault’s investment in Reliance Airport Developers Limited (RADL) has no link whatsoever with the Rafale contract between the Government of India and France on a Government-to-Government basis, where all 36 aircraft are to be exported from France. This investment is an independent arms-length transaction based on fair market valuation of the land and other assets of the Company, and the future business potential in the airports and related infrastructure sector, Reliance group said in a statement.
It also claimed that the RADL transaction was completed in full compliance with applicable FDI and all other rules & regulations and the information has been disclosed in the public domain since December 2017 onwards, nearly a year ago.
“The Congress party has falsely alleged that the funds invested in RADL have been used for the purchase of land at Mihan, Nagpur for the Dassault-Reliance 49:51 JV,” the statement said, adding, “ The payment for the land at MIHAN, Nagpur, Maharashtra was made from 2015 to 2017, much before the investment by Dassault in RADL..”
Congress has been alleging that the Government had put pressure on Dassault Aviation to make Reliance its offset partner for the deal. Dassault Aviation has chosen Reliance Defence as one of its partners in India to fulfill the offset obligations of the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale deal.