Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Officer Eric Trappier in an exclusive interview to ANI rubbished allegations made by Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi that the former lied about the details of the Dassault- Reliance Joint Venture for offset contracts in the Rafale Jet deal.


"I don't lie. The truth I declared before and the statements I made are true. I don't have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don't lie," said Trappier when asked to respond to Rahul Gandhi's charge that Dassault was covering up for possible cronyism in awarding the offset deal to Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.


Rahul Gandhi, in a press conference on November 2, alleged that Dassault invested Rs 284 crore in a loss-making company promoted by Anil Ambani which was used to procure land in Nagpur.


"It is clear the Dassault CEO is lying. If an inquiry starts on this Modi is not going to survive it. Guaranteed," added Gandhi.


Speaking to ANI in the Dassault hangar housed in Istres-Le Tube Air base located North of the French city of Marseille, Dassault's CEO Eric Trappier said that they had prior experience dealing with the Congress party and the comments made by the Congress president made him sad.


"We have a long experience with the Congress party. Our first deal was with India in 1953 with Nehru and other Prime Ministers. We have been working with India. We are not working for any party. We are supplying strategic products like fighters to the Indian Air Force and the Indian Government. That is what is most important," said Trappier.


When pressed further for the reason behind Dassault's choice of Reliance as an offset partner which had no experience in manufacturing fighter jets, Trappier clarified that the money being invested was not going to Reliance directly but in a Joint Venture that included Dassault.


"We are not putting the money in Reliance. The money is going into the JV. I put my know-how free of charge on how to produce people. I have engineers and workers from Dassault who are taking the lead as far as the industrial part of this deal is concerned. At the same time, I have an Indian company like Reliance who is putting money into this JV as they want to develop their country. So the company is going to know how to produce aircraft," added Trappier.