'Rafale' e-mail is an 'Airbus' e-mail: How Rahul Gandhi got it all wrong in this game of obfuscation
Rahul Gandhi's email 'expose' has no reference to Rafale; he just picked on the line "Mentioned a MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit" as referring to the Rafale MoU.
- Feb 12, 2019,
- Updated Feb 12, 2019 4:28 PM IST
In the byzantine world of politics, every side resorts to half truths, lies and more lies. Spoken very often, some of them even get accepted as facts. But this one will be really tough to explain. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging corruption in the Rafale deal. On Tuesday he threw yet another barb at the PM unveiling a copy of an email purportedly referring to Anil Ambani's visit to France before the Prime Minister's visit and alleging that the references in the email are about Rafale.
"Dear students & the youth of India: everyday there are new revelations about Rafale that make it clear that the PM helped his friend Anil Ambani steal Rs 30,000 crore of your money," he said on Twitter. During his press conference, Rahul said earlier there was "one axis of corruption, second axis of procedure. This is the third, and frankly a serious one, where PM Modi has compromised national security."
Only, the email 'expose' has no reference to Rafale. Nicolas Chamussy, Executive Vice President Space Systems - Airbus Defence and Space, using his official Airbus email ID nicolas.chamussy@airbus.com in a subject titled 'Ambani' writes: "For info, just had C Salomon (advisor to JY Le Drian, attended the meeting on Monday) on the phone. A.Ambani visited the ministers' office (Mallet, Salomon, Bouquot) this week (confidential and planned as you can imagine with very short notice). Told them he intends to work with AH on commercial helos and then on defence. Mentioned a MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit. Told him that on our side we are checking the right way forward, there are other potential partners. Suggest we send him a short note about our position."
In the byzantine world of politics, every side resorts to half truths, lies and more lies. Spoken very often, some of them even get accepted as facts. But this one will be really tough to explain. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging corruption in the Rafale deal. On Tuesday he threw yet another barb at the PM unveiling a copy of an email purportedly referring to Anil Ambani's visit to France before the Prime Minister's visit and alleging that the references in the email are about Rafale.
"Dear students & the youth of India: everyday there are new revelations about Rafale that make it clear that the PM helped his friend Anil Ambani steal Rs 30,000 crore of your money," he said on Twitter. During his press conference, Rahul said earlier there was "one axis of corruption, second axis of procedure. This is the third, and frankly a serious one, where PM Modi has compromised national security."
Only, the email 'expose' has no reference to Rafale. Nicolas Chamussy, Executive Vice President Space Systems - Airbus Defence and Space, using his official Airbus email ID nicolas.chamussy@airbus.com in a subject titled 'Ambani' writes: "For info, just had C Salomon (advisor to JY Le Drian, attended the meeting on Monday) on the phone. A.Ambani visited the ministers' office (Mallet, Salomon, Bouquot) this week (confidential and planned as you can imagine with very short notice). Told them he intends to work with AH on commercial helos and then on defence. Mentioned a MoU in preparation and the intention to sign during the PM visit. Told him that on our side we are checking the right way forward, there are other potential partners. Suggest we send him a short note about our position."