Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that the alleged documents of French firm Dassault Aviation on the Rafale deal showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is corrupt.
On Wednesday, a document accessed by French investigative website Mediapart showed that Dassault Aviation entered into an agreement with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as it was presented as a “trade off” to obtain the contract of Rafale sales. The document shows that Dassault considered this alliance as a “counterpart”, “imperative and mandatory” to get into the Indian market.
On Thursday, Gandhi said Modi was still silent on the Rafale deal, the Hindustan Times reported. “Earlier, former French President [Francois Hollande] revealed that Indian prime minister had told them that Reliance should get a deal,” Gandhi said at a press conference in New Delhi. “Now a senior official of Rafale has said the same. It is a clear cut case of corruption.”
“I would like to clearly tell the youth of the country that the prime minister of India is a corrupt man,” Gandhi said, according to ANI. He wondered why Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had suddenly left for France and is likely to visit Dassault Aviation’s office.
Dassault Aviation has debunked the Mediapart report. “Dassault Aviation has freely chosen to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group,” the firm stated.
Gandhi said that Dassault is sitting on a huge contract. “Dassault will say whatever the Indian government wants it to say,” he alleged. “Their internal document clearly stated that the prime minister has said without this compensation the deal will not be done.”
The Congress president claimed that Modi gave Anil Ambani the offset contract in order to save his business. “The reality is that this is not just about the Rafale deal,” Gandhi claimed. “Details will slowly emerge about other deals. This is about defence ministry deals.”
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