Govt says no role in selection of Reliance Defence for Rafale

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 22

A day after former French President Francois Hollande said the Indian government nominated Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Industries as its India partner in the Rafale jet deal, the Ministry of Defence on Saturday said the government of India has no role in the selection. 

“It is a commercial decision of the original equipment manufacturer (Dassault aviation of France), the statement said. The MoD termed media reports based on Hollande’s statement as ‘unnecessary controversies’. The reported statement perhaps needs to be seen in its full context – where the French media has raised issues of conflict of interest involving persons close to the former President. His subsequent statements are also relevant in this regard, claimed the MoD statement.

“The government has stated earlier and again reiterates that it had no role in the selection of Reliance defence as the offset partner,” said the MoD.

The foreign partner is free to select any Indian company as its India partner. It has been reported that a JV between Reliance Defence and Dassault Aviation came into being in February, 2017. This is a purely commercial arrangement between two private companies, the MoD said. 

Strangely, the MoD cited media reports of February 2012 to suggest that Dassault Aviation, within two weeks of being declared the lowest bidder for procurement of 126 aircraft by the previous government, had entered into a pact for partnership with Reliance Industries in the defence sector. The reality is that the Reliance Industries mentioned by the MoD is owned by Mukesh Ambani, elder brother of Anil Ambani. It has no connection with the company that signed the contract with Dassault as India partner after the Rafale deal was announced in April 2015. The company owned by Anil Ambani was set up just days before the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France in April 2015. 

 Meanwhile, Hollande has stood by his statement.

French firms free to choose partners: France 

• The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France has said French companies have full freedom to choose their partner companies for deals like the Rafale deal
• It clarified that the inter-governmental agreement about the deal “concerns the obligations of the French government solely with regard to ensuring the delivery and quality of this equipment (the fighter jets)”