Slugfest over Rafale rages on
FRESH ATTACK Congress president accuses PM Modi of violating the Official Secrets Act; Centre rejects accusation
NEWDELHI: In perhaps his harshest attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the contentious Rafale jet fighter deal, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused him of committing “treason” and “violating” the Official Secrets Act by acting as businessman Anil Ambani’s “middle man” in the transaction.
Both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Ambani’s Reliance Defence rejected the accusation, with the former saying he was acting as a lobbyist for foreign companies.
Gandhi cited an email to claim Anil Ambani had been aware of the Rafale deal days before India and France signed the agreement. “This is now treason, nothing less. Mr Narendra Modi is doing what spies do. He is informing somebody of defence matters, he is under oath to protect these secrets,” he told a news conference at Congress headquarters in Delhi.
“He has now given this secret to Mr Anil Ambani who knows that the biggest defence deal in the world is going to him 10 days before the deal...this itself is criminal, this itself will put the Prime Minister in jail,” Gandhi alleged.
Political discourse has become increasingly inflamed in the run-up to upcoming general elections in which the Congress and other opposition parties have trained their guns on alleged wrongdoing in the Rafale deal, agrarian unrest and the government’s perceived inability to generate sufficient jobs, among others . The government has denied any wrongdoing in the ~59,000 crore deal and so has Reliance Defence.
“Purported email being referred by the Congress party is regarding the discussion between Airbus and Reliance Defence regarding civil and defence helicopter programmes under ‘Make in India’,” A Reliance Defence spokesperson said,
“Discussion on proposed MoU was clearly with reference to cooperation between Airbus Helicopter and Reliance. It had no connection whatsoever with government to government agreement between France and India for 36 Rafale aircraft,” the spokesperson said. MoU is short for memorandum of understanding.
“It is in public domain that Airbus Helicopter has partnered with Mahindra for the military helicopter programme. Also, for the record, MoU for Rafale aircraft was signed between France and India on January 25, 2016 (is this correct) and not in April 2015. It is evident that the facts are being deliberately twisted and reality being ignored,” the spokesperson added.
Hitting back at the Congress chief, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the BJP had serious differences with former Prime Ministers who came from the Gandhi family over several “murky” defence deals signed during their terms but had never accused them of treason. “He has thrown muck at his own face by abusing our honest Prime Minister... We will expose his lies before the public,” Prasad said.
The Congress president released to the media an email dated March 28, 2015 purportedly written by Airbus executive Nicolas Chamussy to three recipients with the subject line “Ambani”. He claimed the email showed Ambani visited then French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s office and mentioned an “MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit (to France)”.
Gandhi asked how Ambani knew about the deal and mentioned it in the French defence minister’s office when even then foreign secretary S Jaishankar and then defence minister Manohar Parrikar had no information on it. “This is a breach of the Official Secrets Act. The prime minister who is the only other person who knows about the deal has informed Anil Ambani about the deal. The Prime Minister is acting as Anil Ambani’s middleman,” he alleged and demanded a criminal investigation into the matter.
He read out the email at the news conference, quoting it as saying that Ambani visited the defence minister’s office and “told them he intends to work with AH (Airbus Helicopters) on commercial helos and then on defence. Mentioned (an) MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit.”
Gandhi alleged, “This is literally handing over a defence secret...The prime minister has compromised national security. He has done what a spy does. He has given defence information to a person who is not supposed to have it.”
The BJP accused Gandhi of working as a “lobbyist” for foreign firms, with Prasad dismissing the charges he levelled as “height of shamelessness and irresponsibility” and calling Gandhi a “lying machine”.
“Let Rahul Gandhi explain where did he get internal e-mail of Airbus. Who is supplying him? There cannot be a bigger thing than this that he is working as a lobbyist for foreign firms,” Prasad alleged.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s decision to enter government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault Aviation was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by stateowned the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
The deal has become controversial with the opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft is three times the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. The NDA has not disclosed details of the price. The deal has also become controversial on account of the fact that one of the offset deals signed by Dassault was with Reliance Defence of Anil Ambani. The Congress claims the earlier deal was scrapped and a new one signed just to provide Ambani an opportunity for an offset deal.
› He has thrown muck at his own face by abusing our honest Prime Minister... We will expose his lies before the public. RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD, Union minister