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‘Dassault had no option but to tie up with Ambani company’

TNN
October 11, 2018

New Delhi, Oct 11: A French media website late on Wednesday claimed an internal document of Dassault Aviation showed the fighter manufacturer was presented with no option but to tie up with Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence as the main offsets partner in the Rs 59,000-crore contract for 36 jets.

French investigative website Mediapart, which last month quoted former French President François Hollande as claiming the Indian government had virtually thrust Reliance Defence as offsets partner on France, on Wednesday said it had a Dassault document proving the same. The report came even as defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman left for a three-day visit to France on Wednesday night.

Mediapart claimed the document showed the alliance with Reliance Defence was indeed presented as "a trade-off" to obtain the contract, quoting a presentation made by Dassault's deputy chief executive officer Loik Segalen to the company's staff representatives in Nagpur. The partnership with Reliance Defence was described as "imperative and mandatory", as per the report.
 
Previously, Hollande had seemed to distance himself from the quotes attributed to him by the website. An AFP report said when asked about India pitching for the Reliance Group, Hollande said he was unaware of this and that the French firm would be able to address the issue.

The French government and Dassault promptly rebutted Hollande's claim last month. The Indian defence ministry, too, dismissed the controversy as "unnecessary", maintaining it had never suggested any company's name as the offsets partner in the deal. Under the contract, the French companies involved must plough back 50% of the contract value to India as offsets or re-investments.

The MoD says, "As per offsets guidelines, the vendor (Dassault) is to provide the details of the offset partners either at the time of seeking offset credits or one year prior to discharge of offset obligations, which in this case will be due from 2020."

The French government said it was "in no manner involved" in the choice of Indian industrial partners which have been, or are being, selected by the French companies involved in the deal. "French companies have the full freedom to choose the Indian partner companies that they consider to be the most relevant, and then present for the Indian government's approval the offsets projects that they wish to execute with their local partners," it said.

Comments

Sunny
 - 
Thursday, 11 Oct 2018

Everything under control of Modi and Shah

Ramprasad
 - 
Thursday, 11 Oct 2018

Feku doesnt bothered about SC. He is an autocrat. Nobody is going to touch him

Suresh
 - 
Thursday, 11 Oct 2018

SC asked to uncover the covered details. Modi may be punished

Danish
 - 
Thursday, 11 Oct 2018

We know it done by feku and team

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News Network
February 18,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 18: Deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi was elected to the legislative council on Monday and although it was a done deal that he would win, a vote from across the aisle spiced up the election.

Counting was conducted soon after ballots were cast and Savadi polled 113 of the 120 votes cast, including the vote of disgruntled JD(S) legislator GT Devegowda. Seven votes were declared invalid. Members of the two opposition parties — Congress and JD(S) — abstained from voting.

The election was necessitated following the resignation of Rizwan Arshad of the Congress. Rizwan resigned after he was elected to the legislative assembly from the Shivajinagar constituency in the assembly bypolls held for 15 seats in December last year.

BR Anil Kumar, who was initially promised the support of both Congress and JD(S) was supposed to contest as an independent candidate. However, as both parties refused to support him at the last minute, he withdrew, paving the way for Savadi’s victory.

The BJP has 117 members in the 225-member assembly, but N Mahesh of the BSP and two independents, H Nagesh and Sharath Bachchegowda, besides GT Devegowda also voted, taking the total electorate to 120 (including the speaker). BJP’s SA Ramadas did not turn up because of health reasons.

“I would like to thank all those who were responsible for my victory. Special thanks to leaders of my party and chief minister BS Yediyurappa, who gave me the opportunity to be the BJP candidate,” said Savadi.

Winning this council election was crucial for Savadi to retain his ministry as he was not an elected member of either of the houses. Rules mandate that a non-member must get elected either to the assembly or council within six months after taking over as minister. February 20 was the deadline for Savadi, who had lost 2018 assembly polls from Athani, to get elected.

Officials in the assembly secretariat said seven votes were invalid because voters had wrongly marked their choices on ballot paper. According to norms, a voter has to mark numerical one, two and three against the names of the candidates in order of preference. Marking only numerical one is allowed. However, six ballots had a tick mark, while a voter had registered a cross mark. Since it was a secret ballot, it was not known who the MLAs were whose votes were invalid.

“The ballot papers bear serial numbers and they are randomly distributed. It is virtually impossible to say who a voter cast his or her vote for,” said assembly secretary MK Vishalakashi, the retuning officer for the bypoll.

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News Network
August 4,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 4: Janata Dal (Secular) leader and MLA Satyanarayana passed away today due to multiple organ failure. He was 67.

Satyanarayana was representing Tumakuru’s Sira constituency in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He is survived by five daughters and one son.

It is learnt that he was suffering from multiple organ ailments from the past few days and was recently admitted to Manipal Hospital in the city. He breathed his last at 12:20 p.m.

He contested from JDS and worked three times as MLA and 2 times as MP. He was the chairman of KSRTC during the coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy.

Former Prime Minister HD Devegowda mourned his death and said, “It is a shock to hear the demise of former minister and my close friend. We are friends from the past 3 decades and I cannot recall the days without him.”

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar said, “Satyanarayana was concerned for the farmers and he was a gentleman. Hearing the news hurts me and this is an irreparable loss to the political field.”

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News Network
July 29,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 29: A day after Congress staged a nationwide 'Save Democracy' protest, Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy slammed Congress for "dividing" the political parties and "buying MLAs" and questioned their "democratic behaviour" to lure Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs who supported them.

Kumaraswamy, in a media statement, said, "Is it a democratic behaviour to lure MLAs of other parties through political shenanigans and later merging with them?"

"Congress is an expert in dividing political parties and purchase of MLAs," said Kumaraswamy adding, "If you are dividing the like-minded party MLAs through deceit, who would support you?"

He alleged that the term "horse trade" in politics came to be used because of Congress.

Congress had tied to divide the Janata Dal (Secular) in 2004. To this, he added, "To avoid the party being hijacked by the Congress, I had to oust the Congress-JD(S) coalition government through a political coup."

Kumaraswamy further accused, "Haven't the Congress who is making a big noise about the purchase of MLAs divided the JD(S) in the past? Is it not a fact that for the sake of one Rajya Sabha seat, the Congress government in Karnataka purchased eight JD(S) MLAs?"

Both -- Congress and BJP -- are "criminals" in purchase matter, he added.

Rajasthan Congress is in turmoil after simmering differences between Sachin Pilot and Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot came out in the open. Pilot was removed as the Deputy Chief Minister and the state unit chief of Congress.

The Congress has accused the BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. The BJP has rejected the allegations.

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