Nirmala Sitharaman says Hollande's claims on Rafale deal faces allegations
Accordingly, Union defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman said former French president Francois Hollande's claims on the Rafale deal has come at a time when he himself was facing allegations that his associate had received some funds for some purpose. Meanwhile, when speaking to reporters at the Officers Training Academy here, she said, " here was the former president of France who himself is facing an allegation of his associate having received some funds for some purpose. Moreover, the allegation may be true or may not be true.
Earlier on September 21, a French media report quoted Hollande as purportedly saying that the Indian government proposed Reliance Defence as
partner
for Dassault Aviation in the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet fighter deal and France did not have a choice. Furthermore
the defence
minister also took a swipe at Congress President Rahul Gandhi's August 30 tweet, saying he seemed to be predicting Hollande's actions well in advance.Meanwhile
to a question on much delayed
S-400 deal with Russia, Sitharaman said the deal was almost at a stage where it could be finalised
. Further
when asked if the 'surgical strike' across the data-border, the second anniversary of which is being on Saturday, has deterred intrusions, she said a lot of them were being eliminated at the data-border itself and they were not allowed to come in.