Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Mr. Modi was a “corrupt man who helped industrialist Anil Ambani pocket ₹30,000 crore in the purchase of the Rafale fighter aircraft.”
At a press conference, Mr. Gandhi demanded an investigation against the Prime Minister.
“PM is Anil Ambani's chowkidar”, Mr. Gandhi said. Corruption was happening under the Prime Minister’s nose, healleged as he read out a report of Mediapart that said Mr. Ambani’s offset contract was a 'compensation' for the Rafale deal to the aircraft manufacturer, Dassault Aviation.
Mr. Gandhi also described Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s trip to France as part of a “huge cover-up” by the government.
A report in the French media said that Dassault Aviation had to choose Mr. Ambani’s firm Reliance Defence as its offsets partner in India as a trade-off for getting the deal.
The government had been insisting that it had no role in Dassault’s choice of Reliance Defence.
Dassault Aviation said in a statement that it had “freely chosen to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group”.