'I don't lie,' says Dassault CEO Eric Trappier; dismisses Rahul Gandhi's allegations on Rafale

The storm over the controversial Rafale deal has strengthened with Dassault Aviation's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Trappier categorically dismissing the allegations made by Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi earlier this month that he lied about the details of the Dassault-Reliance Joint Venture (JV) for offset contracts. "I don't lie. The truth I declared before and the statements I made are true. I don't have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don't lie," Trappier said in an interview to ANI.

On November 2, Gandhi had fired a fresh salvo alleging that Dassault paid Rs 284 crore as "first instalment of kickbacks" to Anil Ambani's company and that the French firm was covering up for possible cronyism in awarding the offset deal to the Reliance Group. During the press conference, Gandhi had added that Dassault invested Rs 284 crore in a loss-making company promoted by Anil Ambani which was used to procure land in Nagpur.

However, Trappier claimed that there was no pressure to choose Ambani's firm. "We chose Ambani by ourselves. We already have 30 partners other than Reliance. The IAF is supporting the deal because they need the fighter jets for their own defence to be at the top," he added.

Instead, the Dassault chief focussed its long history with India and the Congress party. "We have a long experience with the Congress party. Our first deal was with India in 1953 with Nehru and other prime ministers. We have been working with India. We are not working for any party. We are supplying strategic products like fighters to the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian government. That's what is most important," Trappier said.

When pressed to explain the choice of a partner with no prior experience in manufacturing jets, Trappier said, "We are not putting the money in Reliance. The money is going into the JV (Dassault-Reliance). Engineers and workers from Dassault are taking the lead as far as the industrial part of the deal is concerned."

Trappier added that for the time being, they have already put Rs 40 crore to start the work in the hanger and to pay workers and employees, which will be increased to Rs 800 crore gradually. "When we created the JV last year, decision of creating a JV was part of our agreement in 2012, but we waited for contract to be signed. We are supposed to put in this company together about 800cr as 50:50. Shares in the JV are 49% for Dassault and 51% for Reliance," he said.

(Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal)