FM PICKS HOLES IN HOLLANDE’S STATEMENT ON RAFALE DEAL

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday questioned “contradictory statements” made by former French President Francois Hollande over India’s purchase of 36 Rafale jets, and said the government had no role in choosing an offset partner for the deal, prompting Congress president Rahul Gandhi to reiterate his demand for a joint parliamentary probe (JPC) into the agreement.

A fresh round of political confrontation began after French investigative website Mediapart on Friday quoted Hollande as saying that the Indian government had proposed the name of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group as an offset partner in the $8.7 billion deal.

He later insisted to AFP that France “did not choose Reliance in any way”, but said he was unaware if India had asked Dassault to work with the group.

“Truth cannot have two versions,” Jaitley wrote in a Facebook blog on Sunday, a day after Gandhi asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear the air over the deal.

Jaitley said the offset partner was selected by Dassault Aviation and neither the French government nor the Indian government had any say in the matter – the stated position of New Delhi, Paris and the French aviation firm.

The minister said a controversy was being created on the basis of Hollande’s statement.

Hollande said Reliance Defence’s “partnership” with Dassault Aviation was entered at the suggestion of the Indian government. “It was a governmentto-government agreement under which the complete weaponised aircraft are to come to the Indian Air Force. No manufacturing is to be done in India. It is, therefore, erroneous for anybody to suggest that there is a ‘partnership’ in the supply of the 36 Rafale aircraft,” Jaitley wrote.

In an interview to news agency ANI, Jaitley said there appeared to be a ‘jugalbandi’ (collaboration) between remarks made by Hollande and Gandhi.