DASSAULT ‘PICKED’ RELIANCE OF ITS OWN FREE WILL

PARIS — Dassault Aviation said it picked India’s Reliance Defence as a partner for a big military combat deal on its own, countering a French online media report that said the Indian government insisted on the firm as a condition of the contract.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s purchase of 36 Rafale planes in a deal estimated to be worth $8.7 billion has become a political controversy and on Thursday his rivals seized on the revelations by Mediapart as further evidence of wrongdoing.

The French news outlet said it had obtained a Dassault company document in which a senior executive is quoted as saying the group agreed to work with Reliance as an “imperative and obligatory” condition for securing the fighter contract.

But Dassault in a statement late on Wednesday denied Delhi had a role in the choice of the partner. “Dassault Aviation has freely chosen to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group,” —