mangalore today
name
name
name
Thursday, March 28
Genesis Engineersnamename

 

"We Chose Ambani By Ourselves, I Don’t Lie": Dassault CEO On Rafale Deal


Mangalore Today News Network

Istres-Le Tube Air Base, Marseille:

In the massive political controversy over the Rafale jet deal, French jet-maker Dassault has broken its silence on Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of corruption in its tie-up with companies in Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group for offset contracts.

 

Rafale Deal.jp


"We chose Ambani by ourselves. We already have 30 partners other than Reliance," Dassault CEO Eric Trappier told news agency ANI in a detailed interview at the Dassault aviation hangar in Istre- Le Tube airbase in Marseille, France.

The CEO also hit back on the Congress president’s charge that Dassault, to bag India’s 59,000 crore order for 36 Rafale jets, chose Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence as an offset partner despite its inexperience in the field, and then lied about details of the deal. "I don’t lie. The truth I declared before and the statements I made are true. I don’t have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don’t lie," Mr Trappier said.

The Dassault CEO responded to opposition allegations that the government scrapped a deal for 108 Rafale jets negotiated by the previous Congress-led UPA government and agreed to a not-so-favourable order for 36 jets just to favour one company.

"Price of 36 was exactly the same when you compare with 18 flyaway. 36 is the double of 18. So as far as I was concerned, it should have been double the price. But because it was govt to govt, there was negotiation, I had to decrease price by 9 per cent," he said. The UPA government had negotiated a deal for 126 Rafale jets under which 18 jets were to be supplied in a fly-away condition and 108 were to be manufactured in India along with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

"As a supplier we were pushing to get the deal. We wanted the deal. It was originally for 126 aircraft...but that was being delayed. To India’s urgent requirement, the government of India requested to get 36 aircraft on priority... which is what happened in 2015, hence the deal was modified," said Mr Trappier.

In exchange for landing the Indian contract, Dassault has to invest half the value of the deal - about 30,000 crores - in Indian firms. Reliance Defence was chosen as one of those "offset" partners. The opposition has alleged that the company was chosen in a process that lacked transparency. Mr Trappier said the money being invested was not going to Reliance directly but in a Joint Venture that included Dassault.

"We are not putting the money in Reliance. The money is going into the JV. I put my know-how free of charge on how to produce people. I have engineers and workers from Dassault who are taking the lead as far as the industrial part of this deal is concerned. At the same time, I have an Indian company like Reliance who is putting money into this JV as they want to develop their country. So the company is going to know how to produce aircraft."

The Dassault CEO’s clarification comes days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi, flagging a report by news portal The Wire, alleged that the French plane-maker invested Rs. 284 crore in a loss-making company promoted by Anil Ambani, which was used to buy land in Nagpur. The Wire had also referred to an interview in which Mr Trappier had claimed his company chose Reliance ADAG as its offsets partner because it had land next to an airport.

"The CEO is lying, the big question is why a company would invest Rs. 284 crore in a loss-making company with a valuation of Rs. 8.3 lakh. This is called kick-back. This is the first instalment of the kick-back that was given to Anil Ambani by Dassault," the Congress president alleged, saying that "Rafale is an open and shut case".

"So why is Dassault CEO lying, because he is trying to protect one person the person who runs this country...Modi," he said.

Dassault has said it was under no pressure to select Reliance Defence as its partner for a huge joint venture in Nagpur that will manufacture plane parts - though not for the 36 jets ordered by India.

Mr Trappier told ANI that Dassault was earlier in discussions with several other companies for offset tie-ups. "Obviously, we could have gone to Tata or other family groups. At that time, the decision to go ahead was not given to Dassault. We were in 2011, Tata was also discussing with other flying companies. We finally decided to go ahead with Reliance as they have experience in big engineering facilities."


Write Comment | E-Mail To a Friend | Facebook | Twitter | Print
Error:NULL
Write your Comments on this Article
Your Name
Native Place / Place of Residence
Your E-mail
Your Comment
You have characters left.
Security Validation
Enter the characters in the image above