Congress president Rahul Gandhi spoke to the media today after a report in The Hindu newspaper by N Ram mentioned that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) engaged in ‘parallel parleys’ with the French side on the Rafale deal thereby weakening the position of the negotiating team and the Indian Ministry of Defence.
At the heart of this controversy lies the 7.87 billion Euro deal between India and France where the India is the purchaser of 36 fighter aircrafts from the French company Rafale. A Defence Ministry note dated November 25, 2015 has been alluded to in The Hindu report where Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar was apprised of the ‘parallel’ negotiations taking place through ‘officers who were not a part of the Indian Negotiating Team.’
The note also adds that the position adopted by the PMO was ‘contradictory to the stand taken by the Ministry of Defence and negotiating team’. According to the report submitted in Supreme Court by the government, the PMO was not a part of process of negotiation.
Referring to this news report in The Hindu, the Congress president has stated that the negotiating position of team India was severely compromised due to the parallel negotiations carried out by the PMO. He added that 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.
Pointing out that the former French President Francois Hollande had himself admitted that the name of Anil Ambani had been suggested by the Indian government, Rahul Gandhi spoke on the “corrupt culture” of crony capitalism being practised by the current regime.
Stating his dislike for “strong words”, Rahul Gandhi added that it had however now become a ‘duty’ to tell the country that the Prime Minister was a ‘thief’.
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