Rafale deal: French PM’s leaked letter to Narendra Modi could be “forged”

Credibility crisis has engulfed the letter supposedly written by then French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on September 8, 2016, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which he assures that the French government would back the obligations made by French defence companies in the Rafale deal.

The letter, leaked to news agency ANI, claims that the French government was fully behind its defence giant Dassault Aviation, which is building Rafale jets for the Indian Air Force.

The timing of the leaked letter, which was revealed by ANI just hours after The Hindu carried a damning news report which cited a note by then defence secretary warning the Prime Minister’s Office against carrying out “parallel” negotiations with the French authorities.

The negotiations by the PMO “weakened the negotiating position of MoD and Indian Negotiating Team,” said the letter from the defence secretary on November 24, 2015, as reported by The Hindu.

Soon after The Hindu’s report triggered scathing reactions from Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders, the defence secretary at the time, G Mohan Kumar, told ANI that his reservations were about “sovereign guarantees and general terms and conditions,” and had nothing to do with the price.

It (MoD dissent note on Rafale negotiations) had nothing to do with price. It was about sovereign guarantees and general terms and conditions," Kumar was quoted as saying by ANI.

It was around the time that Mohan Kumar clarified on the MoD’s dissent note that ANI carried another news report, this time quoting a leaked letter from then French Prime Minister to PM Modi.

However, the authenticity of then French Prime Minister’s letter has come under a cloud, with Twitter users noting the absence of an official letterhead among other discrepancies.

The suspicion that the letter might have been forged was given further weight after the same Twitter user pointed out that the French PM’s alleged letter mentioned that it was an “unofficial translation,” a rather unusual practice when communications between the heads of states is done.

“How do you know this ANI has put forward a forged letter? Zoom in to Top-Right corner .. It says "UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION" .. What crap is that? (sic),” the Twitter user notes.

“Only thing that was printed in BOLD is His Excellency Mr. Narendra Modi and his title .. Remember this is Unofficial Translation Probably done by the forger guy who wrote Entire Political Science (sic),” he said, further mocking the letter.