Reliance Group Chairperson Anil Ambani has written to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, claiming that the Opposition party has been misinformed about the Rafale deal. Ambani blamed “corporate rivals and vested interests” for “misinforming, misleading and misdirecting” the Opposition party.

“There is no contract from the Ministry of Defence to any Reliance Group company related to the 36 Rafale aircraft,” Ambani wrote, according to a statement released by the group on Monday. “Not a single component worth a single rupee is to be manufactured by Reliance for these 36 jets. The allegations relating to ‘lack of experience’ are, thus, irrelevant.”

The businessman said the Congress’ allegations about the deal were “baseless and unfortunate”, and had caused him “a lot of anguish”. Ambani had written a similar letter to Gandhi in December.

Gandhi has asked the government why the contract was taken away from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and given to a businessman who is under a lot of debt – an apparent reference to Ambani – and a company that has no experience in making fighter jets. He has also challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a debate on the agreement.

“More than 100 medium, small and micro enterprises will participate in this, along with public sector undertakings like Bharat Electronics Limited and Defence Research and Development Organisation,” Ambani wrote on Monday, echoing Reliance Defence and Aerospace President Rajesh K Dhingra’s comments earlier this month. “This role strengthens Indian manufacturing capabilities, and is in pursuance of the offsets policy introduced by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government itself from 2005 onward.”

Ambani dismissed the claim that Reliance Defence and Aerospace was set up just 10 days before Modi announced in April 2015 that India would buy 36 Rafale jets from France instead of 126. The businessman claimed that Reliance Group had announced its decision to enter the defence manufacturing sector in December 2014-January 2015.