Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi and said mere allegations against the Modi government don’t prove anything.
Replying to the accusations of wrongdoings, Jaitley said the Rafale deal is clean and there is no question of cancelling it.
Jaitley indicated in an exclusive interview with ANI that there could be a linkage between Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s charges on the NDA government and Hollande’s statement on Rafale deal.
Linking the September 21 statement made by former French President Hollande on Rafale in which he said the French side was asked by the Indian government to go with Reliance as an Offset partner, and a tweet by Rahul Gandhi on August 30 warning of impending news “in the next couple of weeks”, Jaitley said that the two statements may have been `orchestrated’ as they are in perfect rhythm with each other.
Jaitley said that he sees a perfect coincidence in the rhythm between Gandhi’s tweet on August 30 and what happens when a statement is made which is found to be inaccurate and, therefore, the next day itself, Hollande goes and starts backtracking it.”
Rahul Gandhi had on August 30 tweeted: “Globalised corruption. This #Rafaleaircraft really does fly far and fast! It’s also going to drop some big bunker buster bombs in the next couple of weeks. Modi Ji please tell Anil, there is a big problem in France.”
Days later, on September 21 Francois Hollande told French Journal Mediapart in an interview that the Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence was chosen as the offset partner by Dassault because the Indian government had “proposed” its name.
However, Dassault Aviation, clarified that the pact for Offset clause between Dassault and Reliance Defence was a private agreement between two companies and neither the French nor the Indian government were involved in it.
