Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of treason, saying he should be booked under the Official Secrets Act for sharing information about the Rafale deal with industrialist Anil Ambani.
At a press conference at the Congress headquarters, Mr. Gandhi released to the media an email dated March 28, 2015 purportedly written by Airbus executive Nicolas Chamussy to three recipients with the subject line ‘Ambani.’
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He claimed the email showed Mr. Ambani visited then French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s office and mentioned an “MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit (to France).”
Rebutting Mr. Gandhi’s claims Reliance Defence claimed the email was not regarding the Rafale deal memorandum of understanding but about a discussion between Airbus and Reliance Defence regarding Civil and Defence Helicopter Programs.
The Congress president asked how Mr. Ambani knew about the deal and mentioned it in the French Defence Minister’s office when even then Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had no information on it.
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“This is a breach of the Official Secrets Act. The Prime Minister who is the only other person who knows about the deal has informed Anil Ambani. The Prime Minister is acting as Anil Ambani’s middleman,” Mr. Gandhi alleged and called for a criminal investigation into the matter.
According to Mr. Gandhi, it was earlier an issue of corruption, of procedural inconsistencies but was now a matter related to the Official Secrets Act which he said was “much more serious” and Mr. Modi should be behind bars for this.
“This is now treason, nothing less. Mr. Modi is doing what spies do. He is informing somebody of defence matters, he is under oath to protect,” he said.
To a question about the Enforcement Directorate investigation into the land deal by his brother-in-law Robert Vadra, Mr. Gandhi said that he welcomes all the investigations about his family members as long as the government also allows investigations into the Rafale deal.
“Why don't you allow a JPC...you can investigate us as much as you want,” he said in response to a question. The Congress president also rejected the Comptroller and Auditor General report on the Rafale deal, and dubbed it “Chowkidar Auditor General” report.
Reliance rebuts charge
The Reliance Defence spokesperson in a statement said the email that Mr. Gandhi referred to related to a discussion between Airbus and Reliance Defence regarding Civil and Defence Helicopter Programs under ‘Make in India.”
“Discussion on proposed MoU was clearly with reference to cooperation between Airbus Helicopter and Reliance. It had no connection whatsoever with Government to Government Agreement between France and India for 36 Rafale aircraft,” the spokesperson said.