Govt denies role in Reliance deal

New Delhi: A day after former French President Francois Hollande’s claim on the Rafale deal fuelled a massive political row, the BJP-led government asserted on Saturday that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence as a partner for Dassault Aviation, the maker of the jet.

Bolstering its claim, the French government also said that it was in “no manner” involved in the choice of any Indian industrial associate for the contract and Dassault Aviation added that the decision to partner with Reliance Defence was its own. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in a tweet, said, “In our govt there is no corruption.”

On Thursday, Mr Hollande, who was French President when the Rs 58,000 crore deal with India was announced, was quoted as saying by French news website Mediapart that France was given “no choice” on selection of the Indian partner for Dassault and that the Indian government proposed the name of Reliance to partner with the French aerospace giant. “We didn’t have a say in that. It was the Indian government that proposed this service group (Reliance), and Dassault who negotiated with Ambani. We didn’t have a choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us,” Mr Hollande was quoted by Mediapart.fr on the offset contract. The defence ministry said on Saturday that “unnecessary controversies” are being sought to be created following media reports regarding a statement purportedly made by Mr Hollande concerning the selection of Reliance Defence as the offset partner by Dassault, the manufacturers of Rafale aircraft.

“The government has stated earlier and again reiterates that it had no role in the selection of Reliance Defence as the offset partner,” the ministry said.

In what is being seen as a swipe at Mr Hollande, whose claimed that New Delhi had proposed the name of Reliance Defence as the offsets partner of Dassault, the defence ministry said, “The reported statement (of Hollande) perhaps needs to be seen in its full context — where the French media has raised issues of conflict of interest involving persons close to the former President. His subsequent statements are also relevant in this regard.”

There have been reports that Anil Ambani’s Reliance entertainment had co-produced a French film Tout La-Haut with Mr Hollande’s partner Julie Gayet when India and France were negotiating the Rafale deal.

In its statement, the French government said it is in “no manner involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners who have been, are being, or will be selected by French companies”.

Dassault Aviation said that the decision to partner with Reliance Defence to fulfil offset obligations of the deal was its own. It said the Indian company was chosen as a partner in accordance with the policy of  “Make in India”.

“This offsets contract is delivered in compliance with the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016 regulations. In this framework, and in accordance with the policy of Make in India, Dassault Aviation has decided to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group. This is Dassault Aviation’s choice,” Dassault said.

Elaborating on its activities in India, the company said, “Other partnerships have been signed with other companies such as BTSL, Defsys, Kinetic, Mahindra, Maini, Samtel… Other negotiations are ongoing with a hundred-odd potential partners. Dassault Aviation is very proud that the Indian authorities have selected the Rafale fighter.” Under India’s offset policy, foreign defence entities are mandated to spend at least 30 per cent of the total contract value in India through procurement of components or setting up of research and development facilities.

Dassault said that its partnership with Reliance 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 Nagpur site was chosen because of the availability of land with direct access to an airport runway, an essential condition of aeronautic activities,” it said. AFP reported that Mr Hollande told it on the sidelines of a meeting in Canada on Friday that France “did not choose Reliance in any way”. When asked whether India had put pressure on Reliance and Dassault to work together, Mr Hollande said that he was unaware and “only Dassault can comment on this”.