Break silence on Rafale deal, Congress tells PM

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New Delhi : The Congress once again asked Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday to tell the truth of the Rafale fighter jet deal, asserting that he is silent since he is really guilty of brokering the biggest defence deal and the lid is now off his “sweetheart deal” with not one but three evidences in a row. Party chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the Modi government is itself caught into the web of its lies and it is “time for PM Modi to break his silence” since after the third confirmation of the Prime Minister securing the offset contract of Rs 30,000 crore and a Rs 1 lakh crore ‘life cycle cost contract’ for industrialist Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence company. He told a Press conference here that the undisputed evidence now corroborates the brazen ‘crony capitalism’ and ‘quid pro quo’ by the Modi government in the multi-crore Rafale scam. Surjewala released the minutes of the meetings held on May 11 last year by Dassault Aviation’s COO Loik Segalen with the two unions (CGT and CFDT) that are part of the Central Works Council alike trade unions in India with a role in the company’s financial management.

The minutes say: “A complete presentation of the ‘Make in India’ with the creation of the enterprise “Dassault Reliance Aerospace” in Nagpur was made. According to Segalen, it was imperative and mandatory for Dassault Aviation to accept this counterpart in order to obtain the export contract Rafale India.” The minutes of the meeting with DFDL on “New Company: Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL)” state: “This is inevitable consequence of the Rafale India contract which requires ‘Make in India’’ to be signed. A ‘Joint Venture’ was therefore created with the Indian Reliance company to achieve this goal. Dassault Aviation is a 49% shareholder, Reliance 51%.” Surjewala said the minutes with DGT further expose and cement the quid pro quo as it states that: “Concerning the production in India: The management presents this as the inevitable ”compensation related to the Rafale” contract.” Is it not conspicuous and suspicious that Dassault Aviation, which took years to conclude a workshare agreement with HAL (Hindustan Aeronauticals Limited) in order to ensure their best interests, was able to broker a deal with Reliance Defence in such a short span of time, Surjewala asked.

On the BJP and a slew of ministers claiming that Dassault Aviation was free to choose its offset partner, he said if that was indeeed true, why former French President Francois Hollande said reliance was the offset partner given to hem and it was followed up by Dassault”s second in command Loik Segalen state that “it was imperative and mandatory for Dassault Aviation to accept this counterpart in order to obtain the Rafale India export contract. Surjewala said if Dassault Aviation willingly agreed to partner ith Reliance Defence, why was it called an inevitable compensation. Was it not deliberate squandering of HAL”s interests?