‘Rafale was govt-to-govt discussion’

WASHINGTON: French President Emmanuel Macron described the multi-billion dollar deal with India for 36 Rafale combat jets as a “government-to-government discussion”, but refused to go deeper into the controversy as he said it happened before his time.

Macron was asked at a news briefing on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday if the Indian government had at any stage asked the French government or Dassault, the French maker of the jets, to pick Reliance as the India partner for offsets.

“It was a government-to-government discussion and I just want to refer to what Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) said very clearly a few days ago,” he said.

“I was not in charge at the time but I know that we have very clear rules and that this is a government-to-government discussion,” Macron added.

The deal under which India is buying 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition was announced by Modi during a visit to France in 2015, and formalised in September 2016 for an estimated ~59,000 crore. A few months later, Dassault and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence announced a joint venture. The first jets are expected to be delivered in 2019.

Francois Hollande was president at the time (Macron took office in May 2017) of the announcement and the signing

of the agreement. He recently said in an interview that Reliance was suggested by the Indian government. “It was the Indian government that proposed this service group, and Dassault which negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us,” he had said.

PEOPLE DON’T LOOK AT MODI WITH SUSPICION, SAYS SHARD PAWAR

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said he didn’t think people look at Prime Minister Narendra Modi with suspicion in the Rafale controversy.

“I think the people do not have any doubts about the PM but the way the information is not being made available and the way the defence minister kept speaking about the issue, the people are wondering if the government has anything to hide,” Pawar said in an interview to Marathi news channel News18 Lokmat.

The interview was aired Wednesday evening.

The remarks made by Pawar, whose party has announced its intention to forge an alliance with the Congress in Maharashtra, are contradictory to the stand taken by Congress president Rahul Gandhi who has launched a direct attack on Modi over the Rafale jet deal.

Pawar also said the Centre need not reveal the technical information about the planes as it could be “sensitive”.