India's defense minister is traveling to Paris to speak with the French government amid controversy over a multibillion-dollar deal to sell 36 fighter jets to India.
The 2016 deal was for India to buy Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault. The leader of India's main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, has accused Narendra Modi's government of buying the aircraft at nearly three times the price being negotiated when his party was in power before Modi became prime minister in 2014.
Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who will meet her French counterpart, Florence Parly, on Thursday, has refuted the claim.
India's Congress party President Rahul Gandhi displays documents as he accuses Narendra Modi's government of buying 36 Rafale fighter jets from France's Dassault at a highly inflated price, in New Delhi, India. VOA
Gandhi also accused Modi's government of favoring the company owned by industrialist Anil Ambani, Reliance Group, when choosing an Indian partner for Dassault.
India's government has denied any wrongdoing.
Dassault Aviation said in a statement Wednesday that it "has freely chosen to make a partnership with India's Reliance Group."
The French company explained that it has committed to side deals in India worth 50 percent of the value of the jet purchases. In order to deliver those side deals, it has decided to create a joint-venture with Reliance Group.
Rafale Deal is very important for both the countries involved i.e. India and France.
The controversy has intensified following comments last month by former French President Francois Hollande — who was in charge when the deal was signed in 2016 — suggesting France had no say in the choice of the Indian company.
Gandhi appears to be bent on making the Rafale deal an election issue ahead of the general vote in early 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Hindu nationalist party are the front-runners in the race.
Gandhi has been pressing the government to reveal the exact price of the Rafale aircraft deal, claiming that French President Emmanuel Macron told him in March that there was no secrecy clause.
The French Embassy in New Delhi immediately issued a statement saying that a security agreement bound the two countries to protect classified information. (VOA)