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Rafale deal: Rahul fires fresh salvo at Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Sitharaman

Rafale deal: Rahul fires fresh salvo at Arun Jaitley, Nirmala Sitharaman

Rahul Gandhi

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Gandhi, raising the pitch on the Rafale jet deal, has asked for a discussion in parliament under a rule that makes it a must for the government to answer

Rahul Gandhi is back with yet another file of facts and is pushing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for answers on Rafale jet deal.

The Congress president, on Friday, called out Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Twitter and said: "You said the UPA never released prices of Defence purchases? To nail your lie, here are 3 Parliamentary replies by the UPA with full transparency on pricing. Now do ask our Raksha Mantri to tell India how much each RAFALE jet cost."

With that, he attached screenshots of documents - one dated 9 August 2010 titled "Aircraft Carrier Admiral Gorshkov" and another 4 March 2013 titled "Upgradation of Aircraft" - by the Ministry of Defence.

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The documents mention several ‘parliamentary replies’ on the prices of several defence purchases made during the UPA government.

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, defending the government's decision against making the break-up of the nearly Rs 58,000 crore deal public, said when UPA was in power, then defence ministers Pranab Mukherjee and A K Antony had on 15 occasions told Parliament that giving out such details would be against the interest of national security.

He hit back at the Congress over the Rafale deal, accusing it of "seriously compromising" country's security by seeking details of armaments purchased along with the aircraft.

He also advised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to "learn" from former defense minister Pranab Mukherjee "lessons on national security."

Rahul has been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 2016 deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets. "What is the price that the Prime Minister has spent on Rafale," Gandhi had asked on Tuesday.

Gandhi, raising the pitch on the Rafale jet deal, has asked for a discussion in parliament under a rule that makes it a must for the government to answer.

The Congress president alleges that there is "something fishy" about the deal to buy 126 fighter jets and that is the reason Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman are silent on it.