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Following the explosive remarks of former French President Francois Hollande according to which New Delhi "proposed" Reliance Defense as an Indian partner for the Rafale agreement, the current French administration seems to be trying to stand out from Controversy.
Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session yesterday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the Rafale contract of 58,000,000 rupees was a discussion "from government to government". was signed between India and France.
"I will be very clear, it was a government-to-government discussion and I just want to refer to what Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi very clearly said a few days ago," Macron said. the press. No matter what point was said to France or Dassault – the French aerospace major – that they had to accept Reliance as an Indian partner for the agreement. "I do not have any other comment, I was not responsible at the time and I know we have very clear rules," he said in his first comment. on the controversy.
On 21 September, Hollande fueled the Rafale's already controversial operation by telling a French newspaper, Mediapart, that his government had no choice but to choose a local partner for Dassault Aviation to fulfill the countervailing duties of the transaction. "We had no choice, we took the interlocutor that was given to us," he said, essentially suggesting that all this was done at the request of New Delhi. The agreement was signed during his term.
This development drew the attention of the Modi government to the fact that it did not have official knowledge of Dassault Aviation's selection. Hollande then went back and told AFP that he did not know if Dassault had been pushed by the Indian government to work with Reliance and that "only Dassault can comment."
Nevertheless, the bitter war of words between the current government and the congressional party over the deal has been stronger than ever since his interview. The opposition has long accused the government of massive irregularities in the deal. The Congress Party accused the government of corruption, jeopardizing the national interest and security, causing "crony capitalism" and taking advantage of Anil Ambani's company.
In a tweet published earlier today, Congress President Rahul Gandhi called the Skill India government's flagship campaign "PM S-KILL India Program" and alleged that "30,000 crores rupees have been stolen from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Millions of skilled young people face the highest unemployment rate in twenty years. "
Following Hollande's comments, the French government was quick to issue a statement that it was not involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners. Macron, however, also said yesterday that the agreement was important to him. "This is very important to me because it is a strategic coalition and not just an industrial relationship," he said, noting that "this contract is part of a military coalition and defense between India and France ".
With the PTI entries
