Mounting fresh allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has alleged that Anil Ambani knew about the Rafale deal even before the defence minister and the foreign secretary.
Calling the Prime Minister a ‘middleman’ for businessman Anil Ambani, the Congress leader produced an email at a press conference today as proof that the chairman of the Reliance Group visited France a fortnight before the Prime Minister closed the 36-jet contract with Rafale.
In the email cited by him, an Airbus employee reports on the meeting between Anil Ambani and the French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in March, 2015, before the Prime Minister’s visit to France, stated Rahul Gandhi.
Calling it a ‘breach’ of the ‘Official Secrets Act’, Rahul Gandhi added that Anil Ambani ‘opened his company after this meeting’.
As per the email, it was in ‘black-and- white’ said the Congress president that the Prime Minister was acting as Anil Ambani’s ‘middleman’. Reliance Defence has however maintained that Anil Ambani’s visit to France had nothing to do with the Rafale deal, it was to discuss a naval utility helicopter deal.
At the heart of this controversy lies the 7.87 billion Euro deal between India and France where the India will purchase 36 fighter aircrafts from the French company Rafale.
Earlier, the Congress president had called the ‘Prime Minister is a representative of Anil Ambani’ – the chairman of Reliance Group, the company chosen to partner the Rafale deal with the French government.
