Reliance Defence and Aerospace President Rajesh K Dhingra said on Wednesday that allegations of nepotism in granting a contract connected with the India-France Rafale deal are unfounded, reported The Economic Times.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, advocate Prashant Bhushan and Congress President Rahul Gandhi have all spoken out against the deal. In a joint statement, Sinha, Shourie and Bhushan on Wednesday alleged that the Rafale defence deal had put national security at risk, and called it a “major scandal”, “by far larger than ones that the country has had to contend with in the past”.
However, Dhingra told The Economic Times in an interview that neither Reliance Defence nor any other company has received any contract from the Ministry of Defence related to the 36 Rafale jets to be procured from France. He also said that the Ministry of Defence has no role in selection of Indian partners by foreign vendors – in this case Dassault Aviation.
“Dassault is required to inform the Ministry of Defence about its offset partners at the time of claiming credits, which I am sure they will do,” he said. “The exact share of each company involved in the offset contracts will be known only after completion of offset obligations by Dassault, Thales, Saffron, MBDA and others.” Dhingra said that the offset obligations are due only after September 2019 and therefore the Ministry of Defence may have no contact with Dassault Aviation about the choice of its partners.
When pointed out that Reliance has no experience in making fighter planes, Dhingra said that no such aircraft are to be manufactured in India, as per the Rafale contract. “All aircraft are to be delivered as ‘fly away’ from France,” he said. Admitting that only Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has experience of making fighter jets, Dhingra said Reliance will participate in the offset programme with Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd, in which Dassault Aviation holds 49% shares.
He also denied that Dassault Aviation will give an offset contract of over Rs 30,000 crore to Reliance. “Dassault’s share of offsets is approximately 25%,” he said. “Dassault and its suppliers have already indicated that over 100 Indian companies will participate in offset contracts.” Dhingra said Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd could assemble the jets in India, but will not manufacture them here.
The Reliance Defence and Aerospace president denied that the date of incorporation of the company could be linked to the Rafale deal, and said Reliance Group Chairperson Anil Ambani was in Paris at the time the contract was signed to attend a meeting of the CEOs Forum on the sidelines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit.
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