Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday continued his criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the Rafale aircraft deal with France. The Opposition party has repeatedly attacked the prime minister for alleged irregularities in the 36-jet defence pact.
Gandhi claimed that businessman Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence firm, which was awarded an offset contract with Dassault Aviation in the Rafale deal, was struggling to pay its debts to Swedish telecom major Ericsson. He cited a media report that claimed Ericsson has petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent Ambani and two senior executives in his company from leaving the country. The businessman reportedly owes the Swedish company Rs 550 crore.
The Congress president said a person has to “be a defaulter of [Rs] 45,000 crore, owe money to other companies who beg the Supreme Court not to let you leave India and be called ‘Bhai’ [brother] by the PM but have no relevant experience” to be awarded a defence contract.
The BJP government and Reliance Defence have repeatedly denied the allegations levelled by the Opposition party.
On September 28, Gandhi claimed Modi had taken money from the poor and had given it to Ambani. The Congress leader alleged that Ambani’s company had unfairly benefited from the deal instead of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which was to make the aircraft in India before the Bharatiya Janata Party government inked a new deal with France in 2015. The party’s allegations were bolstered when former French President Francois Hollande claimed last month that the Indian government had proposed Reliance Defence’s name for the contract.
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