A Guide to the Controversy Over Modi’s French Fighter Jet Deal

In 2016, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed an $8.7 billion deal for 36 Rafale fighter planes from France. On the back of the government-to-government contract, the French plane manufacturer Dassault Aviation SA agreed to a so-called offset deal with an Indian company run by one of the nation’s wealthiest businessmen, Anil Ambani. Controversy has swirled ever since over whether -- as Dassault and the French and Indian governments say -- the choice to partner with Reliance Group was Dassault’s alone or, as India’s opposition Congress party alleges, a result of pressure from Modi’s administration to push business Ambani’s way. It’s a simmering controversy that threatens to undermine the government’s anti-corruption credentials in the run-up to the 2019 general election. And it’s been stirred by Francois Hollande, who was French president when Modi signed the deal.

Hollande says India’s government proposed billionaire Ambani’s Reliance Group to work with Dassault. "We were given no choice, we took the partner which was appointed," the former president was quoted as saying by French investigative journal Mediapart in September. Hollande made the comments while responding to a report about a Reliance Group company co-producing a movie with Hollande’s partner Julie Gayet. The movie deal was announced just days before Hollande signed the agreement to sell the jets. A spokesman for Hollande said Oct. 1 there was no conflict of interest.