Rahul Gandhi hatched international conspiracy to derail Rafale deal: BJP

Congress releases two video clips from March and April 2015 to cement their claims

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi of having hatched an international conspiracy to derail the Rafale fighter jet deal. The party said this conspiracy had international dimensions, and that it was meant to help India's enemies, particularly Pakistan, and also to benefit Congress chief's brother-in-law Robert Vadra, and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

The Congress said the Modi government had failed to answer several questions on why public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had lost the deal to industrialist Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence Ltd and was now taking recourse to raking up an imaginary Pakistan angle. On a two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, Amethi, Gandhi said the country's "chowkidar" Narendra Modi snatched money away from the poor and handed it over to Ambani.

The BJP fielded Minister of State for Agriculture Gajendra Shekhawat and spokesperson Sambit Patra to defend the party. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also issued a brief statement, in which she alluded to "international dimensions" of the Congress party and its president's allegations.

The defence minister said the government would counter the false propaganda with facts. She said the sequence of events, including Gandhi's tweets and Hollande's statement, led one to believe there was more to the controversy than meets the eye. Shekhawat said the Congress-led UPA had cancelled HAL's tie-up with Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale jets. 

Shekhawat also ruled out a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe, and alleged the Congress demand to this effect was intended to benefit India's enemies in the neighbourhood since such an inquiry would reveal sensitive defence information. He alleged the Congress could not digest that "middlemen" had been eliminated during the Modi government's tenure, including people like Vadra and Bhandari, who had a stake in defence deals.

The Congress on Monday showed at its press conference two video clips from March and April 2015.  In the first video clip from March 25, 2015, Dassault chief Eric Trappier is in the presence of the Indian Air Force and HAL officers in Bengaluru, and can be heard discussing responsibility sharing on the Rafale contract. He can be heard specifically mentioning the HAL, and stating that he strongly believed the formalisation of the contract will take place soon. "17 days later PM Modi gave the contract to Reliance," tweeted the Congress.

The other video clip from April 8, 2015, had foreign secretary S Jaishankar stating at a press briefing in New Delhi that discussions on the Rafale deal were "underway between the French company, our MoD and HAL". Congress spokesperson Singhvi said the two video clips proved beyond doubt that the PM took the decision to change the nature of the deal without the defence minister being in the loop. He said the BJP allegation of collusion between Hollande and Gandhi was "silly". 

He said the Rafale "saga is getting murkier by the minute". Singhvi called for an impartial probe. "We have asked CVC to freeze all documents."

To a question on how foreign secretary S Jaishankar was on record in April 2015 that HAL was very much a part of the deal, Shekhawat said HAL officials had travelled to Paris in their capacity as experts, and not as partners of Dassault. When asked why the government hasn't booked Congress leaders for hatching a conspiracy against the nation, Shekhawat said Bhandari’s role is under probe.

Shekhawat and other BJP leaders also insisted that former French president Francois Hollande's second statement on the issue contradicted his first. Hollande had initially said the Indian government had "proposed" Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as the offset partner for Dassault Aviation in the Rafale deal. A day later, Hollande had nuanced his statement to say only Dassault knew how it picked Reliance Defence. Shekhawat also pointed to French Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne’s comment on Sunday that Hollande's statements "render no service to France". However, BJP leaders refused to accept that Hollande didn't actually contradict his first statement and the French minister didn’t deny what Hollande has said.

BJP sources conceded that the party and the government needed to be more aggressive in combating the "propaganda" of the Opposition. Party leaders have been asked to hold press conferences across the country. Shekhawat said the conspiracy was evident from Gandhi's tweet of August 30, where he had predicted how more revelations in the controversy were likely to be made, and three weeks later Hollande commented on it.

In the morning, a delegation of senior Congress leaders met the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). They demanded registration of a case in alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal. The Congress had last week approached the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to urge the apex auditor to prepare a report on the alleged irregularities in the deal and present it in Parliament.

In Amethi, Gandhi said: "Why was the price (of Rafale) not disclosed...how was the contract given to (Anil) Ambani... serious charges have been levelled by former French president Francois Hollande." He alleged that under the Modi government people like Anil Ambani, Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi are getting all benefits, while the poor are suffering.