Stung by Rahul Gandhi’s barbs, Modi govt to list projects awarded to Anil Ambani under UPA regime

In a bid to counter Rahul Gandhi’s constant barbs about helping Anil Ambani, the Modi government will compile list of projects awarded by the UPA regime to Anil Ambani’s companies. Officials told Economic Times that projects worth Rs 100,000 crore were awarded to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group in seven years under UPA.

Data is being collated from key ministries such as power, telecom, road transport and highways as well as government entities like National Highway Authority of India, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

The report states Ambani’s Reliance Group won projects worth Rs 77,000 crore in the power sector alone.

Rahul Gandhi is a serial liar,’ Union Minister Piyush Goyal said while addressing the media in New Delhi on Friday.

The minister’s stinging point-by-point rebuttal comes a day after the Congress chief held a press conference, where he spoke about latest twist of ‘trade off’ in Rafale deal and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a ‘corrupt man.’

We have a crystal clear situation, where, for keeping national interests and security of the nation as paramount, the government decided to expedite the procurement of very crucial defence equipment,’ Goyal said. 

‘Repeating lie after lie, falsehood over falsehood is not going to help to change the reality. Congress party is an issue-less party and their leadership cannot understand the basic facts and possibly trying to hide their own wrongdoing,’ Goyal added. 

Regarding the latest reports about the ‘obligation’ of making Reliance Defence as the offset partner, Goyal said that, ‘the CEO of Dassault Aviation has categorically confirmed that since the implementation of offsets was an obligation, they themselves chose the partners to implement the offsets.’

He also said that even the Supreme Court has ‘categorically refused to discuss the price and technical details of Rafale which are sensitive for the security of country.’  

From ‘twisting the French media report’ to ‘lying about ex-French President calling our PM a thief’, Rahul Gandhi has been consistently lying about Rafale ‘facts’, Goyal said. 

All this comes after former French President Francois Hollande last month said that France had "no choice" but to join with Reliance after it was pushed by the Indian government -- comments which were seized upon by Indian opposition parties. 

In April, the Indian Air Force started the process to acquire a fleet of 114 fighter jets and Dassault Aviation has emerged as one of the key contenders for the contract.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after talks with the then French President Hollande on April 10, 2015 in Paris. The final deal was sealed on September 23, 2016.

The Congress has been alleging massive irregularities in the deal, saying the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government when it was negotiating the deal.

The Congress has also been targeting the government over selection of Reliance Defence as an offset partner for Dassault. 

The government has vehemently rejected the allegations and asserted that it did not have any role in the selection of Reliance Defence. 

Dassault Aviation's joint venture with Reliance represents around 10 per cent of the offset investments under the Rafale jet deal, Dassault CEO Eric Trappier has said.

"We're in talks with about 100 Indian firms, including around 30 with which we've already confirmed partnerships," Trappier told AFP.

Separately on Thursday, speaking at a briefing in Paris, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reiterated the government's claim that it had no idea that Dassault Aviation would team up with Reliance Group, run by Anil Ambani.

Several reports say Dassault was forced to choose Reliance by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite its having almost no experience in the aviation sector. On the eve of Sitharaman's visit, French investigative website Mediapart quoted the notes of a meeting between Dassault management and workers' representatives which described the choice of Reliance as "imperative and compulsory".

"We are very clear: With the government of France, we agreed to purchase 36 Rafale aircraft in flyaway condition," Sitharaman said.

"And in an intergovernmental agreement, there are no mentions of any individual firms," she said.

"It is more for the companies which have chosen A, B or C as their partners to answer questions if there are any," she said.

In a statement, Dassault released a transcript of what it said was Trappier's interview with AFP in which he was asked about the status of the offsets.

"Signing an offset contract is a requirement of Indian law (Defence Procurement Procedure). The implementation of offsets is an obligation and, under the Indian regulation, the choice of the partners belongs to us, Trappier was quoted as saying.

"In full compliance with this regulation, Dassault Aviation therefore decided to set up the DRAL joint venture with Reliance and build a plant in Nagpur, which should enable us to meet about 10% of these offset obligations. We are in negotiations with about a hundred Indian companies and partnerships have already been concluded with about thirty of them," he was quoted as saying.

He said what is called offset in English is usually translated into French as compensation or contrepartie . With regard to the staff and trades unions organizations, Dassault Aviation uses the term obligation contractuelle d'offset or obligation contractuelle de compensation , he said.

Dassault negotiated for years with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the order, with the jets being jointly built in India.

But those talks were cancelled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office, when he decided to purchase the jets directly from France.

Asked why Dassault chose Reliance over HAL as its partner, Trappier said Dassault Aviation decided to establish a long-term presence in India through DRAL, a joint enterprise in which governance is provided by an Indian Chief Executive Officer and a French Chief Operating Officer.

"Dassault Aviation therefore exercises technical and industrial control over the operations, applying its standards and its flexibility. This JV will produce parts for the Falcon 2000 and Rafale. The choice of the Nagpur site, in central India, was dictated by the availability of land with direct access to an airport runway, he was quoted as saying. Dassault on Wednesday said it had "freely chosen" to form a joint venture with Reliance. But that stance was contradicted recently by former French president Francois Hollande, under whose watch the Rafale deal was signed.

Hollande said last month that France had "no choice" but to join with Reliance after it was pushed by the Indian government -- comments which were seized upon by Indian opposition parties.

Under Indian defence procurement rules, foreign companies winning contracts must "offset" or reinvest half the total value -- in this case around eight billion euros -- in joint ventures or purchases with Indian firms.