The Congress party renewed the call for a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into Indian government’s deal with Dassault Aviation and the French government for procuring 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts after the French Public Prosecution Services (PNF) ordered an investigations into the “Rafale Papers” on the complaint of French Anti-Corruption NGO, Sherpa.
French news website Mediapart reported on Friday that the PNF has ordered investigation into the 2016 inter-governmental deal on June 14 following a decision by the financial crimes branch.
At a press conference, party general secretary (Communications) Randeep Surjewala said former president Rahul Gandhi who had carried out a sustained campaign against the government flagging corruption in the Rafale aircraft deal stands vindicated.
Competent authority
When pointed out that the Supreme Court had already dismissed the plea for a court monitored probe, Mr. Surjewala said only a JPC is the competent authority to conduct the investigation. “It is the competent authority to summon official documents which the Supreme Court will not be able to do. The Supreme Court in its verdict had said it is not the competent authority to hear the Rafale case. The Prime Minister must tell the country when his government will allow a JPC probe in the light of the French enquiry.”
Mr. Surjewala said the deal led to a massive loss to the exchequer and it needs to be thoroughly investigated in the national interest.
The French investigation will cover among other elements questions surrounding the actions of former French President François Hollande, who was in office when the deal was inked, and President Emmanuel Macron, who was at the time Mr. Hollande’s Economy and Finance Minister, as well as then Defence Minister and now Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as also the role of the Reliance Infrastructure Limited, the mediapart report said.
It also released details of the agreement inked between the Reliance Infra and the Dassault Aviation to constitute a Joint Venture Company called Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL), which substantiates the statement of Mr. Hollande that the decision to appoint Reliance as Dassault’s industrial partner was that of Modi govt. and that France “had no choice” in the matter.
Mr. Surjewala pointed out that as per the documents that are so far in public domain, Reliance owned 51% and Dassault 49% in DRAL. But whereas Dassault pledged to provide €159 million of the ₹169 million investment decided by the two, Reliance was to bring only €10 million.
“As per the agreement between Reliance and Dassault, Reliance was to provide production facilities and ‘marketing for programme and services with the GoI’. Obviously, this is a reference for the influence of Reliance with the Modi government.”
The agreement between Reliance and Dassault excluded the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, since it was DRAL which was responsible for Rafale’s ‘Aircraft Final Assembly Line’.
On March 25, 2015, CEO of Dassault Aviation Eric Trappier, in the presence of the IAF chief and Chairman of HAL, announced in Bangalore that Dassault and HAL were in agreement in accordance with the RFP signed by them. A day later, Reliance and Dassault signed an MoU. This was just 15 days before the unilateral announcement by Mr. Modi on April 10, 2015 to purchase 36 Rafale Aircrafts for ₹7.8 billion without transfer of technology and bypassing the Congress-UPA global tender to purchase 126 aircraft.
Anti-corruption clauses
It is important to remember, Mr. Surjewala said, the “Defence Procurement Procedure” contains mandatory “anti-corruption clauses”. This policy was also part of the tender issued by Congress-UPA for purchase of the 126 fighters. These clauses were part of the intergovernmental agreement of July 2015 for the 36 Rafale aircraft deal too.
“But later the French govt/Dassault deleted the ‘anti-corruption clauses’. Prime Minister Modi approved the deletion of the ‘anti-corruption clause’ in September, 2016. This was done despite the specific guidance of the Defence Ministry to include the ‘anti-corruption clauses’.”
Chidambaram’s poser
Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram in a series of tweets said eight new dates have been revealed in the deal. “Surely, the PM and, if not PM, then Defence Minister can tell us what events happened on these dates?”
If there is no mystery, he said, why doesn’t the government tell the whole story in one sitting?
He asked, “Why should ‘events’ and ‘facts’ tumble out of the cupboard one by one?”
