You lied on the Rafale deal.... The world’s largest democracy must seriously introspect whether public discourse should be allowed to be polluted by the falsehood of a ‘Clown Prince’

Arun Jaitley blogging on September 20

It was the Indian government that had proposed the service provider, and Dassault negotiated with Anil Ambani, former French President Francois Hollande has been quoted as telling a Paris-based website.

“We didn’t have a say on the subject. It was the Indian government which had proposed this service group and Dassault which negotiated with Ambani. We did not have the choice. We took the interlocutor who was given to us. That’s why, in other circumstances, this group could not be avoided in spite of everything,” Mediapart on Friday quoted Hollande as saying.

The statement attributed to Hollande, who was speaking in French, was translated for The Telegraph by Basabi Pal, head of the French department at Chandernagore Government College in Hooghly, and Sudeshna Banerjee, a journalist with this newspaper.

Mediapart, a subscription-based online journal, is published by Edwy Plenel, who was the editor-in-chief of the widely respected Le Monde.

In a statement, Dassault Aviation said it decided to get into a partnership with Reliance Defence in accordance with the ‘Make in India’ policy. “This partnership has led to the creation of the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL) joint venture in February 2017. Dassault Aviation and Reliance have built a plant in Nagpur for manufacturing parts for Falcon and Rafale aircraft,” the company said.

Former defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said it was Modi who had finalised the Rafale deal with Hollande in 2015. Senior ministers, including defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and finance minister Arun Jaitley, have dismissed any suggestion of a government role in the choice of Reliance.

On Friday, the Indian defence ministry spokesperson tweeted: “The report referring to former French President Mr Hollande’s statement that GoI insisted upon a particular firm as offset partner for the Dassault Aviation in Rafale is being verified. It is reiterated that neither GoI nor French Govt had any say in the commercial decision.”

Well past midnight, PTI quoted the government of France, for which the Rafale deal is vital, as saying “it is in no manner involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners” for the deal.

This has nothing to do with the Government of India and, therefore, any private industry having benefited from the Government of India is a complete lie. Can Shri (Rahul) Gandhi and his party deny this?

Arun Jaitley asking 15 questions on August 29

Prime Minister Narendra Modi locks the then French President Francois Hollande in a hug in Chandigarh on January 24, 2016. Hollande was the chief guest at the Republic Day Parade that year. Ramakant Khushwaha

The purported statement by Hollande has lobbed a live grenade into the middle of the Rafale debate. It brings under strain the Narendra Modi government’s attempts to distance itself from the selection of a company belonging to Anil Ambani’s Reliance group as an offset partner by Dassault, maker of the fighter planes.

Hollande was defending himself against charges that a Reliance group company had favoured his partner and actress Julie Gayet by entering into an agreement to produce a film with her.

Self-preservation may have been his motive. In the process, the former French President, one of the several foreign leaders to have been blessed with a bear hug from the Indian Prime Minister, has landed Modi and his government in what increasingly looks like a credibility crisis ahead of the general election.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has been relentlessly pursuing the issue and was called a “Clown Prince” by Jaitley 24 hours earlier for not answering the finance mnister’s 15 questions on the Rafale deal in connection with the Rafale row, did not mince words on Friday. “The PM personally negotiated & changed the Rafale deal behind closed doors....Thanks to François Hollande, we now know he personally delivered a deal worth billions of dollars to a bankrupt Anil Ambani. The PM has betrayed India, He has dishonoured the blood of our soldiers,” Rahul tweeted. “Cat is out of the bag”, screamed Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala as social media erupted with questions and barbs about what some described as the desperate efforts to conceal the facts and mislead the nation.

The Congress promptly launched the hashtag #ModiRafaleLiesExposed with an acerbic comment: “It’s hard to deny the truth. You’ve been scammed.”

Party spokesperson Manish Tewari tweeted: “President (former) Francois Hollande should also enlighten us how the price went up from 590 crore in 2012 to 1690 crore in 2015 per Rafale fighter jet? Escalation of a mere 1100 crore. I am sure the Euro equivalent would not be a problem to calculate.”

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said: “This Rafale deal is a scam if there was one. The Modi govt has lied and misled Indians. The whole truth must come out now. Why was the Indian government batting for one corporate house with no experience in defence manufacture?”