Rafale fighter jets (file photo)/ official website: Dassault | Photo Credit: Times Now

New Delhi: At a time when Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have locked horns over the multi-billion Rafale aircraft deal between India and France, a French journalist/ blogger has posted a document, reportedly, minutes of a meeting held on May 11, 2017, in which Loik Segalenn, one of the top officials of Dassault said that a contract with Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence was 'obligatory' if Dassault wanted to win the Rafale deal.

A quick translation of the said text in the document reads- "A complete presentation of the Make in India creation of the firm Dassault Reliance Aerospace Nagpur has been done. According to Mr Segalenn, it was imperative and obligatory for Dassault-Aviation to accept this counterpart in order to obtain the Rafale India export contract."

According to the article, published on Portail Aviation, the document is the "union summary of a meeting (CEC, mandatory under French law), presenting the effects of the "offsets" imposed on the defence contract (50% of counterparties) and the "Make in India" policy."

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It may be noted that the said document was also referred to by French news portal Mediapart, which had earlier this month reported that a contract with Reliance was obligatory on Dassault in order to bag the contract for Rafales for Indian Air Force.

The revelation assumes importance back home as the document provides Congress with the much-needed fodder to corner the government over the Rafale deal. Rahul Gandhi led Opposition has been attacking the Centre for giving preference to Reliance over state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Gandhi also recently met HAL employees in Bengaluru.