New Delhi, Describing the Rafale deal as a case of ‘globalised corruption’, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that it would drop ‘some big bunker buster bombs’ in the next couple of weeks.
Referring to a news report that said two years before when then French President Francois Hollande came to New Delhi as the 2016 Republic Day chief guest and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delivering 36 Rafale aircraft, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment entered into a deal to produce a film with Hollande’s partner and actor Julie Gayet, Mr Gandhi said,’ Globalised corruption.
This #Rafale aircraft really does fly far and fast! It’s also going to drop some big bunker buster bombs in the next couple of weeks. Modi Ji please tell Anil, there is a big problem in France.’
The report, published in an English daily, was posted by Mr Gandhi on his twitter account. It said soon after Reliance Entertainment entered into a deal to produce a film with Hollande’s partner and actor Julie Gayet, Ambani’s Reliance Defence became part of the offset programme of the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal through Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL), in which it holds a 51% stake. Dassault Aviation, the French manufacturer of Rafale, holds 49% stake in DRAL.
‘On January 24, 2016, Reliance Entertainment announced that it had entered into an agreement with Gayet’s firm, Rouge International, to jointly produce a French film.
On January 26, 2016, both countries signed the MoU for the purchase of 36 jets in flyaway condition. The deal, called the Inter- Government Agreement, was expected to be signed during Hollande’s visit but was delayed due to ‘some financial issues’,’ the report said.
The Congress has charged the NDA government with signing the Rafale deal to benefit Mr Anil Ambani despite the fact that the company did not have any experience of defence production.
It has demanded that a joint parliamentary committee be constituted to probe the deal.
