New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday dismissed as “questionable” the purported remarks of former French president Francois Hollande to the effect that French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation was given no choice but to partner Anil Ambani’s Reliance group for making parts of Falcon and Rafale aircraft in India.
The purchase of the 36 Rafale jets, which are to be inducted into the Indian Air Force from September 2019, has been in the eye of a storm with the Congress party questioning the price and the selection of the local partner for making parts. Congress party president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi come clean on the deal and that a joint parliamentary committee should investigate the matter.
In a Facebook post, Jaitley reiterated that neither the Indian nor the French government had a role in Dassault Aviation choosing the local partner. The finance minister said that Anil Ambani’s Reliance group and Dassault are not partners in India’s purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft, which was a government to government contract.
“They (Reliance group company) have no contract with either the government of India or the government of France. They were not selected as one of the many offset partners by any government. ‘The partners (Dassault and Reliance) selected themselves’ as the former President Hollande now says. This contradicts his first questionable statement which the French government and Dassault have denied,” said Jaitley.
Jaitley’s comments come in the wake of news reports quoting Hollande on the sidelines of a conference in Montreal on Saturday that he was unaware whether India put pressure for the Reliance group to work with Dassault. Jaitley said that Hollande’s second statement in Montreal to a news agency made the veracity of his first statement made to French journal Mediapart more questionable.
The controversy over India’s purchase of Rafale aircraft got fresh fuel on Friday with Mediapart quoting Hollande as saying that Dassault Aviation was given no choice but to partner Anil Ambani’s Reliance group for the offset clause in the deal, according to an ANI report. Later on Friday, Dassault Aviation SA said its partnership with Anil Ambani’s Reliance group for making parts of Falcon and Rafale aircraft was Dassault Aviation’s choice. That statement backed the Indian government’s position that the joint venture between the two groups was the result of a commercial decision between the businesses and governments had no role in that.
“The offset contract ensures investment by the original equipment supplier i.e. Dassault Aviation, in India, in as much as they make purchases from Indian companies to the extent of 50% (in this case). The choice of the offset partner under the 2005 offset policy is of M/s Dassault Aviation and they have selected several public and private sector companies to make the supplies,” said Jaitley.
The defence ministry too made the same argument on Saturday that Indian government had no role in the selection of the offset partner, which it said was a commercial decision of the original equipment maker.