Updated: September 1, 2018 3:03:34 pm
Abhishek Singhvi said: "Once is coincidence, two times is coincidence … all this series of events are called conflicts of interest – they are not called coincidences. (File photo)
Friday's congress said the film production deal between Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment and the partner of former French President Francois Hollande, actor Julie Gayet, two days before Hollande visited India in 2016, signing a MoU with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delivery of 36 Rafale aircraft raises new questions regarding consideration and conflicts of interest.
The Indian Express reported Friday that Reliance Entertainment had entered into a pact with Gayet & # 39; s Rouge International to jointly produce a French film on January 24, 2016. On January 26, 2016, India and France signed the MoU for the purchase of 36 jets in flyaway state.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said the pact between Reliance Entertainment and Gayet's company was no coincidence. He did not mention the Reliance Group and only mentioned it as the company that is the beneficiary of the crore offset contract of Rs 30,000 in the Rafale deal.
"What are these series of coincidences," Singhvi asked. He claimed that the "head of the group" had accompanied Prime Minister Modi to France when the deal was announced in 2015, a defense company set up 12 days earlier, had the contract and an agreement with the French President's partner in 2016.
Singhvi said: "Once coincidence, two times coincidence … all this series of events are called conflicts of interest – they are not called coincidences, they are called quid pro quo, a beautiful Latin word, but meaning in coarse English and Hindi, you and I know, and what it means in simple language is also what certain statues have made a criminal offense. "
He said: "It is now known that the head of this group went to Paris with Modi when the agreements (for 36 Rafale jets) were signed on 10 April 2015. This film production agreement was a icing on the cake in the murkier deals. .. "Singhvi said the French media have been reporting about Gayet's" huge influence "since 2015.
Dassault Aviation, makers of Rafale fighter jets, could not have given the compensation contract to Reliance without pushing and encouraging the government, Singhvi claimed. "Had the French manufacturer suffered from midsummer or bitten by wild animals that he decided to give a Rs 30,000 crore contract or a substantial part of it, along with a 50-year life cycle maintenance contract worth (Rs) 1 lakh crore ? … Did they only find one group with a candle that belongs to the highest list of debts? … They did not find any other industrialists from India, & # 39; he asked.
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