Paris: In yet another highly possible catalyst to further stir up the controversy over Rafale jet deal, documents published in French aviation blog may add more fuel to the fire amid allegations being made by opposition that France made the Rs. 59,000 crore deal in return of its aeronautics company Dassault aviation tying up with Anil Ambani’s company.
Two images related to two trade union documents uploaded by the French blog Portail Aviation may further the political issue over the deal for 36 Rafale jets sealed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the French in the year 2016.
The published images are of documents by two unions of Rafale-maker Dassault – namely the CFDT and CGT. The documents details the meeting held in May 11 2017, in which the 2nd senior most of Dassault Aviation, Loik Segalenn discusses about the joint venture with the Reliance Defence of Anil Ambani.
The blog just published the documents and does not go into the details of it, but helps the readers to conclude whether or not Reliance was forcefully imposed on the French as an Indian partner under a condition for the deal to be reached.
The same document of CFDT was mentioned earlier in a report by the French publication Mediapart after the statement made by former French President Francois Hollande that France was availed no choice but to select Anil Ambani and his company as an offset partner for Dassault. According to the claim made by Mediapart, an internal document of Dassault confirmed Mr. Hollande’s statement.
The allegation was denied by Dassault by saying that the reference in the document was to fulfill the obligation of making offset investments in India and not as a compulsion to sign a joint venture with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence.
Crucial details pertaining to the meeting appear to present a different story.
The CGT statement says, “…a complete presentation of ‘Make in India’ with the creation of the enterprise ‘Dassault Reliance Aerospace’ at Nagpur was done for us. According to Mr (Loik) Segalen it was imperative and obligatory for Dassault Aviation to accept this “contrepartie” in order to obtain the export contract Rafale India.” The French word utilized is “contrepartie”, which can either mean “compensation” or could have the negative sense of a “trade off”.
The second union (CFDT’s) statement talks about ‘Make in India’ being “the inevitable consequence” in return of the deal “imposed” by India, and goes into detail of joint venture with Reliance to attain this objective.
It is quiet clear that the statements are not just discussing about the offset obligation but also about the joint venture to be carried out with Reliance in India.
The opposition and a section of the French media has raised the question whether one of them was mandatory.
The opposition party Congress, has long been accusing the central government of corruption and crony capitalism.
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