Rafale deal: 'Congress misinformed, misdirected and misled by rivals', Anil Ambani pens letter to Rahul Gandhi
Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani today alleged that Congress President Rahul Gandhi is 'misinformed, misdirected and misled' by his rival companies on Rafale deal. In a letter to the Congress chief, Ambani alleged that people with malicious vested interests and his corporate rivals have misinformed him.
The media moghul expressed 'deep anguish over continued personal attacks by Rahul Gandhi on him, and termed all allegations as baseless, ill-informed and unfortunate', an official statement by the Reliance group said.
Ambani, if the letter, said that the allegations relating to the firm's 'lack of experience' are irrelevant as the company will not manufacture any component of 36 Rafale jets. "Rafale jets are not beng manufactured by Reliance or the Dassault Reliance Joint venture as all 36 planes are to be 100 per cent manufactured in France, and exported to India," he said.
He further adds that there was no contract from Ministry of Defence to any Reliance Group company related to the Rafale jets. "Allegations of Reliance benefiting by thousands of crores is a figment of imagination, promoted by vested interests. Simply put, no contract exists with the Government of India," Ambani says in the letter.
Explaining the role of his company as offset export facilitator, Ambani says his company's role in the project will strengthen Indian manufacturing capabilities, and is pursuance of the Offsets Policy introduced by the Congress-led UPA government from 2005 onwards.
The Reliance Group chief further dismissed Gandhi's accusation that Reliance Defence was established 10 days before the announcement of the deal as 'based on incorrect information, and thus irrelevant and completely false'.
"The Reliance group announced its decision to enter the defence manufacturing sector in December 2014-January 2015, months before the intention for purchase of Rafale aircraft," Ambani said.
