Not only a “Buffoon” & a “Clown” Prince, Rahul is also “The Joker”of Superhero Batman’s Comics – Part 1

As predicted by Livefest a few months ago, what will “easily be the most challenging component of the Rafale deal are its offsets.” It was but natural to expect substantial fire focussed through allegations of preferential corporate partnerships for the €4 billion in offsets that Dassault Aviation and its partners need to execute.

It must be noted here that when Mukesh Ambani was its Chairman, Reliance Defence had entered into an agreement with Dassault for a joint venture, even before the Rafale deal was signed.

Offsets involve investments and sourcing that companies manufacturing the Rafale must make in India amounting to 50% of the deal’s estimated €7.87 billion value (Approximately Rs. 60,000/- crores.) This 50% includes investments in terms of Transfer of Technology for manufacture and maintenance of eligible products and services. This is to be done through the joint venture route between the vendor (any of Dassault Aviation partners like Thales) and the Indian companies getting the offset contract.

The current offsets policy of the Defence Procurement permits the vendors to provide details of their Indian Offset Partners till October 2019. Further, Original Equipment Manufacturer is free to select his Indian Offset Partner. Lastly, the offsets are to be executed within seven years from the time the deal was signed — by 2023, that is.

The last date is October 2019 for conveying all the offsets to the Government of India and the authority given to the vendors to select their offset partners are creating all the current controversy and confusion.

For instance, when Reliance Defence’s joint venture with Thales was reported, we were told by Livefest that “the new Thales-Reliance joint venture, named Thales Reliance Defence Systems,  not only plans to build technologies for Rafales in India and worldwide, but also says it will ‘develop Indian capabilities to integrate and maintain radar and electronic warfare sensors”. But in a press report on this Reliance Defence-Thales venture, at least one newspaper stated that “Thales will help the Indian major execute Thales’ offset obligation amounting to $1billion.”

It must be noted here that when Mukesh Ambani was its Chairman, Reliance Defence had entered into an agreement with Dassault for a joint venture, even before the Rafale deal was signed. That venture, which was to be located in the special economic zone in Nagpur where Thales too has decided to be.

Rahul is talking of Anil Ambani’s Reliance getting a contract of Rs. 30,000/- crores — totally ignorant that that amount equals the entire amount of what the French makers of Rafale will invest in its offset obligations.

But what exactly is happening in that special economic zone in Nagpur? According to the “The Economic Times” report of October 16, the Dassault Reliance duo is setting up a plant to manufacture parts for Falcon executive jets (!) and Thales, is setting up an assembly plant for radars adjacent to the DRAL.

To stop such comedies, it is best not to discuss the Rafale offsets any more till all the offset detail of the French companies concerned submit their offset plans to the Indian Government.

But who, pray, will stop our “Pappu” of the Internet, the Buffoon of the Telangana CM, the “Clown” Prince of our country’s Finance Minister? He is still talking of Anil Ambani’s Reliance getting a contract of Rs. 30,000/- crores — totally ignorant that that amount equals the entire amount of what the French makers of Rafale will invest in its offset obligations.

Only the other day, he did it yet again. He lied. And lied through his teeth. And this time around, he showed himself to be not only as the Internet’s Pappu, as the biggest buffoon of our country, and as a Clown… Rahul has now lied devilishly, like the Joker of super-hero Batman’s comics which, like his late chacha, he may well be the largest part of his total reading.

Rahul remains plagued by his paranoia of PM Modi’s government being a “suit boot ki sarkar”.

At a press conference a day after the Supreme Court dismissed three PILs against the Government of India’s role in the Rafale deal for 36 fighter jets, refusing to even issuing a Notice to the accused, and instead just wanting details of the Government’s process of contracting that deal — without the issues of pricing and quality of the jets.

At the above shoot-and-scoot media meet, Rahul “Baba” said that an internal document of Dassault Aviation had recorded that Prime Minister “compensated” Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Defence, with a contract of Rs.30,000/- crores in the Rafale deal. He said that PM Modi stole that amount from the pockets of the Indian Air Force and has given it to Anil Ambani. Thereby, concluded Rahul, our Prime Minister had not acted as the chowkidar of the country (as he promised to be) but as the Prime Minister of Anil Ambani. He hence concluded that our Prime Minister was a corrupt person, and must resign if no satisfactory response came from him for that appellation.

That brazen allegation was proof that Rahul “Baba” is prepared to blacken our nation’s reputation abroad for his shameless self-interest. It was clearly a seditious allegation. He remains plagued by his paranoia of PM Modi’s government being a “suit boot ki sarkar”.

What was also clear was that the “Baba” of the Gandhi family was hugely ignorant of so many facts and truths.

The facts that Rahul Gandhi is hugely ignorant about will be continued in the next part of this article.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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Arvind Lavakare

Arvind Lavakare has been a freelance writer since 1957. He has written and spoken on sports on radio and TV. He currently writes on political issues regularly. His writings include a book on Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

His freelancing career began in "The Times of India" with a sports article published when he was a month shy of 20 years of age. He was also a regular political affairs columnist first for rediff.com for five years or so and then shifted to sify.com. He also wrote extensively for niticentral.com "till it stopped publication."

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