Following Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s remark on Rahul Gandhi’s ‘misadventure’ on the Rafale deal, the Congress president has taken to Twitter to counter the post.
“Mr Jaitley, thanks for bringing the nation’s attention back to the GREAT #RAFALE ROBBERY! How about a Joint Parliamentary Committee to sort it out? Problem is, your Supreme Leader is protecting his friend, so this may be inconvenient. Do check & revert in 24 hrs. We’re waiting!” Rahul tweeted.
There has been tremendous war of words between the government and the opposition on the Rs 58000 crore Rafale deal. Many allegations were raised against the government including a huge loss of tax payers’ money and also unfairly picking Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence Limited as the French firm’s Indian partner.
The Congress has also been attacking Narendra Modi’s government over the 36 Rafale jet fighter deal from French firm Dassault Aviation. On several occasions, the Rahul-led party accused the dispensation of wrongdoings from selection of a private firm and lack of transparency while releasing finer points of the jet deal.
On Wednesday, Jaitley listed 15 points through a Facebook post which accused the Congress party of spreading falsehood on the particular issue. The minister also went on to allege that while “peddling untruth” from Rahul compromised national security in a big way.
“This (allegations on Rafale deal) is like a kindergarten or primary school debate. ‘Well, I was paying 500 something and you’ve paid 1,600 something’. That’s the argument being given; it shows how little understanding Rahul Gandhi has,” Jaitley was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. “Every single word in the Congress’s allegation is factually false,” he was quoted.
However, the controversy started when the Modi government scrapped the deal of buying 18 off-the-shelf jets from France’s Dassault Aviation (which was done by the UPA government). In 2015, Modi government decided to buy 36 ready-to-fly Rafale jets instead of bringing the technology home from Dassault Aviation.