Congress president Rahul Gandhi addressing a press conference on Rafale deal at AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Saturday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 22

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday said there was “clear-cut” corruption in the Rafale deal and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear his position on the issue.

Gandhi’s blistering attack on Modi during a press conference came a day after former French president Francois Hollande was quoted as saying that the Indian government proposed Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as Dassault Aviation’s Indian partner in the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet fighter deal.

The prime minister must clear his stand on the Rafale deal after Hollande’s remarks, he said.

“Why is the prime minister silent? It is a matter related to defence forces, it is a matter related to corruption,” he said.

He also claimed that various defence ministers of the NDA government have been lying to protect Modi.

Gandhi demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe and Hollande can also be called.

“We are absolutely convinced that the prime minister is corrupt… He must clarify,” Gandhi said.

“It is very important for the prime minister now to either accept Mr. Hollande’s statement or state that Mr. Hollande is lying and tell what the truth is,” he said.

‘Surgical strikes’

Taking to Twitter earlier in the day, Gamdhi called Reliance Defence’s involvement in the deal “surgical strike” on the country’s defence forces.

“The PM and Anil Ambani jointly carried out a One Hundred & Thirty Thousand Crore SURGICAL STRIKE on the Indian Defence forces. Modi Ji you dishonoured the blood of our martyred soldiers. Shame on you. You betrayed India’s soul,” Gandhi tweeted.

The report in ‘Mediapart’, a French language publication, quoted Hollande as saying recently: “It was the Indian government that proposed this service group, and Dassault which negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice; we took the interlocutor who was given to us”.

Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after holding talks with then French president Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. The opposition party has been accusing the government of choosing Reliance Defence over state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to benefit the private firm even though it didn’t have any experience in the aerospace sector.

Hollande’s remarks contradict the central government’s stand that Dassault chose Reliance Defence as an Indian partner to fulfil its offset obligations and that the establishment had nothing to do with it. With PTI