Congress President Rahul Gandhi attacks PM Narendra Modi on Rafale deal

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in the Lok Sabha and questioned when will he speak on Rafale deal.

Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and said, "It was a very long speech by Saheb (PM Modi). He termed day as night in the Parliament and put curtains on his own failures. Sadly, the national issues were missing from the speech. When will Prime Minister break the silence? When will he speak on Rafale deal?"

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Rahul also issued a press statement on Wednesday where he said, “The Prime Minister has spoken time and time again about corruption and his commitment to rooting it out. Now when confronted with Rafale, in which he directly intervened, he is completely silent.”

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In his statement, Rahul Gandhi listed three questions for the Prime Minister. They are:

1. “Did the Prime Minister get the necessary clearances from the Cabinet Committee on Security before he negotiated and committed to the purchase of Rafale aircraft in France?
2. How much did the Prime Minister agree to pay for each aircraft?
3. Why did the Prime Minister bypass HAL and prefer to favour a private entity with no previous defence production experience?”

(ANI image)

Rahul also questioned Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s silence over the Rafale deal.

“The Raksha Mantri had earlier committed to answering all these questions. She has now reneged on that commitment. And the Prime Minister has nothing to say. Instead, the Prime Minister chooses to take credit for purchasing cheaper solar panels and cheaper gas, when it is widely known that the international prices of these have plummeted in recent years,” said Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul concluded his statement by saying, “We expected a vision. Instead we got a visionless election speech. It didn't have the gravitas or maturity you would expect of the Prime Minister.”

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The Congress has alleged that the price of the fighter jets being paid by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is higher than what was finalised by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in a previous deal.

During Prime Minister Modi's visit to France in 2015, India and France announced a government-to-government deal wherein the air force would receive 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition as soon as possible.

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Earlier, Prime Minister Modi tore into the Congress party during his speech in Lok Sabha during motion of thanks to the President's address. The Prime Minister directly attacked the Gandhis and the Congress party, blaming them for India's partition. He held previous governments responsible for the non-performing assets (NPA) mess. The Prime Minister said that the banking policies of the previous governments were not proper and the middlemen were happy but the country was suffering.