The Truth, Lie & Propoganda about Reliance Defence Rafale Deal

Friedrich Nietzsche once said “There are no facts, only interpretations”.

This quote from the German philosopher & cultural critic stands true in the present political scenario. With so much information available at the tip of a finger and sharing yours is as easy as click of a mouse, exploiting facts is a piece of cake. Any thing done by anyone at anyplace and at anytime can be “cooked up” as a conspiracy or a story or a fact for that matter.

Let me present my piece of story in the Reliance Defence – Rafale deal. As soon as the story broke out of a deal between Reliance Defence and Rafale, many anti – corruption crusaders, NGO wallas, believers of “Intolerant India”, award wapsi brigade, black TV screen supporters have came up with their “facts” about how the corrupt Modi Government has given the deal to Ambani.

They have came out with statistics to prove their point.

But I believe in Evan Esar when he said “Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures” and I will try to prove how some of the haters of present Government (read Modi) are using statistics as a tool to spread something which is far far different from truth.

Let us start with what Prashant Bhushan tweeted about this deal and my reply to him on Twitter.

What a Lie!!

Reliance Defense bought Pipavav (Estd 1997).

INORGANIC GROWTH!

Its technically 19 YEARS old@pbhushan1 @_YogendraYadav pic.twitter.com/gAvY3sxtYN

— Ankur (@AnkurTheGame) October 3, 2016

Mr Bhushan says that the deal is given to Reliance Defense which is just one year old. Eminent personalities like Yogendra Yadav as well as Kejriwal along with many others retweeted it .

Let us look at the facts:-

Reliance ADAG group brought a company called Pipavav Defense.

Here are some facts about Pipavav Shipyard Limited:-

Pipavav is a village in Gujarat. Pipavav Shipyard was established in this village in 1997.
After a series of funding, the company went public in 2009 and was listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) as well as National Stock Exchange (NSE)
Erstwhile name of this company was Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Company Limited
The company had interests in defense and offshore ship building.
Pipavav Shipyard was the first corporate shipyard which was granted clearance to build warships and other vessels for the Indian Navy. It will be worthwhile to note that the initial licence limits the company to build 5 ships per year.
Pipavav Shipyard was aggressively exploring to foray into aero space.
Japan’s ShinMaywa Industries was actively looking for a partner in India for a 1.6 billion US Dollar aircraft project known as US-2 amphibious aircraft project. Pipavav Shipyard was supposed to be an obvious contender.
Quoting from the annual report FY13-14 of Pipavav Shipping, “As India’s first and only Integrated Defence Company, we have been building our capacities, capabilities and competencies well in advance, in anticipation of these developments”
Pipavav Shipyard also builds commercial ships and provides ship repair and offshore services.
In 2015, Pipavav shipyard was chosen by the Russian government for a ‘Make in India‘ naval frigate order. The order valued over 3 billion USD is the private sector’s biggest-ever warship-building project. The project was awarded after a team from Russia evaluated a host of other companies including L&T, Magazon Dockyard and Cochin Shipyard. The evaluation team was captained by Russia’s deputy industry and trade minister Alexei Rakhmanov.

Are the above points sufficient to prove the eligibility and capability of Pipavav Defense which is now bought by Anil Ambani’s group and rechristened as Reliance Defense?

It is getting annoyed every day to link any deal done by Adani or Ambani to Modi. Ambani has gone from rags to the largest business house years before Modi Government came to power. Shouldn’t we blame someone (obviously a non-Modi) for this?

Why no hullabaloo against the success of these companies during this period?

Why no hullabaloo for other business houses which have earned most of the projects be it IT or coal or steel? And irony is that those other businessmen have been treated as saints by some of the journalists and NGO/ award wapsi brigade.

Can I use the same logic used by “intellectuals” and “designer journalists” and call them agents/dalal of other business house?

And can I call the “utmost holy” supreme parivaar of India aka Gandhi parivar which were in power ( Ambanis achieved their major success suring their tenure) as erstwhile agents of Ambani?

The NGO brigade should understand that businesses do not run on chanda or donation which can be argues as sponsored work.

And the “Robinhood Politics” approach do not work.

It is well known fact that big businesses get big projects because of their experience and exposure to handle one.

Should the Modi Government ban Adani/Ambani to do any business in India to get a certificate from the “intellectuals” that that are honest?

Where were these crusaders of Modi Virodhi Samaj during these news? :-

BAE Systems partners with Mahindra for assembling & testing M777 howitzers under Make in India scheme
Defense Ministry awards LARGEST MILITARY EQUIPMENT ORDER (private sector) project to L&T for 100 artillery guns. (K9 Vajra-T howitze)
Ashok Leyland getting an order where they have to provide 450 units of Field Artillery Tractor (FAT) 6×6 and other similar “Super Stallion” vehicles, and 825 units of “Ambulance 4×4.

There are a host of such projects coming up and different companies are winning different projects. Even in this project companies like Bharat Electronics and Samtel will get a piece of cake. Why focus only on one company?

Add to that the intellectuals forget to mention an important point. Anil Ambani owns Reliance Defense (Erstwhile Pipavav Defense) AND he is supposed to be close to SAMAJWADI PARTY and their leaders & NOT BJP or Modi.

The difference between Ambani brothers is out and clearly visible. It is Mukesh Ambani who is deemed to be close to Narendra Modi.

But senseless propaganda of fitting the tagline (Ye Ambani ka agent hai) of punch master Kejriwal is giving scope to create controversies on irrelevant issues.

Its high time that we have genuine journalism and ethical social issues coming up else we will end up in cat fight between ourselves.