‘I do not lie’: Dassault CEO on Rahul’s Rafale charge
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We are not putting the money in Reliance. The money is going into the JV. At the same time... Reliance is putting money into this JV.
ERIC TRAPPIER, CEO, Dassault
executive officer (CEO) Eric Trappier, in an interview to news agency ANI, rubbished allegations made by Congress president Rahul Gandhi that he lied about details of the French military planemaker’s offsets joint venture with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group in the Rafale jet deal.
He also claimed the price of each jet, in flyaway condition, under the deal signed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is 9% lower than the price offered by the company to the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in a deal that wasn’t closed.
Trappier’s revelation is unlikely to resolve a highly controversial issue, one which has become central to the Congress’ attacks on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Supreme Court is also hearing petitions related to the case.
The government has submitted details of the price at which it bought the aircraft to the court in a sealed envelope and also shared with it details of the process involved. Trappier’s interview came a day ahead of the court’s next hearing. “I don’t lie. The truth I declared before and the statements I made are true. I don’t have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don’t lie,” said Trappier when asked to respond to Gandhi’s charge that Dassault was covering up possible cronyism in awarding the offset deal to Reliance Group.
The Congress party dismissed Trappier’s remarks, alleging a “fixed match” between the Narendra Modi government and Dassault even as it reiterated its demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the Rafale deal. Rahul Gandhi, in a press conference on November 2, alleged that Dassault invested ~284 crore in a loss-making company promoted by Anil Ambani which was used to procure land in Nagpur for the offsets joint venture. “It is clear the Dassault CEO is lying. If an inquiry starts on this, Modi is not going to survive it. Guaranteed,” he added.
The NDA government’s decision to enter an $8.7 billion government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous UPA regime’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).