Modi under fire over French defence deal

Rebels kill lawmaker

NEW DELHI, Sept 23, (AFP): India’s Narendra Modi was under fire after French ex-president Francois Hollande added fresh fuel to corruption allegations in a bilateral defence deal, with the prime minister branded a traitor by his chief political opponent.

French defence firm Dassault picked Reliance Group, run by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, as its main local partner in the multi-billion-dollar 2016 deal to buy 36 Rafale jets, instead of the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

This has long been controversial because unlike HAL, Reliance had no previous experience in the aeronautics sector.

Hollande, president from 2012-17, was quoted on Friday by investigative website Mediapart as saying that France was given no choice on Dassault’s Indian partner.

“We did not have a say in that,” Hollande was quoted as saying. “It was the Indian government that proposed this service group (Reliance), and Dassault who negotiated with Ambani.

“We did not have a choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us.”

The comments were front-page news in Indian newspapers and was the top trending topic on Twitter.

Rahul Gandhi, head of the main opposition Congress party, who is seeking to replace Modi and his rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in elections next year, went on the offensive.

Modi

Maoist rebels kill lawmaker:

Maoist rebels were accused Sunday of assassinating a south Indian lawmaker and another former legislator in a brazen daytime ambush on their vehicle, police and media reports said.

Kidari Sarveswara Rao, a member of the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh state, was shot dead near the coastal city of Visakhapatnam in what police say was a targeted hit on the sitting legislator.

Former lawmaker S. Soma, who was accompanying Rao, was also gunned down in the attack blamed on Maoist fighters active in a forested belt of central and eastern India.

E. Naidu, a local police official, told AFP that Rao was on a Maoist “hit list” of powerful figures accused of having ties to bauxite miners in the mineral-rich state.

“There were some 30 Maoists in hiding. They attacked suddenly, giving no time for them (Rao and Soma) to react,” he said.

The Press Trust of India reported that a large group blocked the car and overpowered the bodyguards escorting the two officials, before turning their weapons on them.