By Nitya Chakraborty
As more and more reports are coming out pointing at the personal involvement of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the selection of the Anil Ambani led Reliance Defence as against the public sector HAL as the offset partner for the Rafale project, all focus has now shifted to the Supreme Court bench led by Justice Ranjan Gogoi who will be hearing the PIL challenging the Rafale deal on October 10. By that time, Gogoi will be acting as the Chief Justice of India since he will be taking over as the CJI on October 3.
Earlier on September 18, the three judge bench headed by Ranjan Gogoi adjourned the hearing till October 10 as the petitioner M K Dharma sought additional time for submitting more documents challenging the Rafale deal. Sharma in his petition, has alleged discrepancies in the fighter jet deal with France and sought a stay on it. Though the apex court did not grant interim stay on the deal, the fact that the petition has been admitted for hearing and the petitioner has been allowed to submit documents, gives enough indication that the learned judges will go seriously into the ways involving the conclusion of the deal and that will question the role played by the PMO and personally by the Prime Minister.
The petition has also sought lodging of an FIR and prosecution of the Prime Minster Narendra Modi, former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, business tycoon Anil Ambani and the concerned French firm Dassault along with the recovery of the amount. The legal experts say that the circumstances under which the offset partner decision was taken at the last minute before the announcement was made by the Prime Minister on April 10, 2015 give enough indication that the decision was taken in an unilateral manner violating the long standing procedures of making such inter government agreement. The reports which are being received in the recent days mention of deliberate pressure tactics by the Prime Minister to push Reliance Defence as a partner.
A media report quoting experts at Dassault Aviation said technical staff were unhappy with the move to drop HAL and that CEO Eric Trappier chose Reliance Defence for Rafale deal at the last minute. More skeletons are tumbling out from the technical rooms of Rafale jet-mkaer Dassault Aviation, creating more headaches for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Completely contradicting the official statement from Dassault Aviation which was given to save the deal, two top technical heads have stated in an interview to India Scoops, that the entire technical staff team at Dassault Aviation were unhappy with the move to drop the Indian public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) from the deal and instead partner with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Ltd.
According to the report, the experts, who did not want to be identified, said there were heated discussions between Dassault officials and several mails were sent over a week. The entire technical team wanted to work with HAL, but the decision was overruled by the top Dassault management headed by CEO Eric Trappier at the last minute. The experts said that Trappier and two others were adamant that they could only go with Reliance Defence and refused to listen to the advice of the departmental HODs.
“We were sure we would be working with HAL and not any other Indian company… At the last minute, we were informed that HAL was dropped and a new Indian company with whom we had never worked before and which had no expertise in manufacturing fighter aircraft was selected for the job,” the article quoted the officials as saying.
“The entire technical team and our team heads and HODs were shocked. It was a bolt from the blue. But we had to follow instructions. At the end of the day… if the top management decided to work with Reliance Defence, we had to toe the line… But it was CEO Eric Trappier and a couple of other officials’ at DA who took the decision to go with Reliance Defence,” the officials were further quoted as saying.
The article quoted Dassault officials as saying that CEO Eric Trappier and two others were adamant that they could only go with Reliance Defence and refused to listen to the advice of the departmental HODs, adding that they were told the Indian government would have scrapped the deal if Reliance was not taken on board
The Dassault Aviation officials made the following points to India Scoops: The Indian government would have scrapped the deal if Reliance was not taken on board. Scrapping the deal would mean losses for the company and hence the top management headed by CEO Eric Trappier took the decision to work with Reliance. This was despite the fact that the in-house technical HODs had vetoed working with a new company having no experience and expertise.
The technical HODs told the Dassault Aviation top management that handing over the contract to a new company would compromise and jeopardise the technology and equipment. The HODs also said taking on an inexperienced offset partner would be hazardous for the over-all image of Dassault as a world-class manufacturer of fighter aircraft.
All these media reports along with the statement of the former HAL chairman who was a privy to all discussions with Dassault and who retired only on September 1 this year and the statement of former French President Francois Hollande that PM Modi proposed Reliance to him and Dassault had no choice, will be before the Supreme Court. Apart the officials of the HAL are seething with anger at the statements of the Defence Minister defaming HAL. They will also see that their reputation is retained. So in all, the proceedings of the Supreme Court will be scary to the PMO and the Prime Minister apart from the BJP leadership. (IPA Service)
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