BJP leader says no need for probe
Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also said that Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the fighter aircraft, and Reliance had entered into an agreement as early as 2012 when the Congress-led UPA was in power as he refuted the allegation that the Modi government had favoured the Anil Ambani-led company.
Ruling out Rahul Gandhi’s demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the deal, he told a press conference that it cannot be done merely to satisfy the ego of ‘an arrogant and illinformed leader repeating lies after lies’.
Prasad also cited statements of the French government and Dassault in which they said Indian and French dispensations had no role in picking the offset partner of the private company, to brush aside the charge of corruption.
He sought to discredit the claim of Hollande, who had said that the Indian government has proposed Reliance as an offset partner, saying that French journalists have spoken about his ‘conflict of interests’. It is none of our concern, he then added.