Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said the Rafael deal pricing is related to public Exchequer and the party is only asking to disclose the pricing not specifications
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday hit back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for not disclosing the price of Rafael deal. On Thursday, Arun Jaitley had accused Congress of compromising on national security by asking to disclose the pricing of jets while addressing the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress chief questioning Arun Jaitley’s statement asked how disclosing only the pricing will affect national security?
The Finance Minister also attacked the opposition Congress saying that during UPA government, prices of the defence procurements were not released as well. However, Congress retorted the claim and said, ” UPA’s Defence ministers had disclosed in Parliament and outside the estimated cost of procurement of 42 Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft, upgrade cost of Mirage aircraft, the cost Kaveri engine development project, and the cost of acquisition of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov from Russia.”
Congress President Rahul Gandhi took it to Twitter to attack Arun Jaitley. He tweeted, ” Dear Mr Jaitlie, 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.”
Dear Mr Jaitlie,
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.#DealMeinKuchKalaHai pic.twitter.com/txb2Cc1BHh
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 9, 2018
BJP Spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao was quick to counter Rahul Gandhi. Rao said that Rahul Gandhi is adopting a “big lie” method of German dictator Adolf Hitler which implied if a lie is repeated often it is perceived as a truth. Attacking the Gandhi family the BJP National Spokesperson said, “The Gandhi family is synonymous with defense bribes & has no credibility. Ra(w)hul looks ridiculous when he utters such big lies. Daal kaala nehin, aap ki neeyat mein khot hai.”
On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi explained his wordplay calling Jaitley as “jaitlie”. Rahul said, “We have given examples of very similar prices during the UPA time. Arun Jaitley-ji yesterday said in Parliament that we [UPA ministers] did not show the prices. And we have shown that we did. So what else do I call him?”
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala clarifying party’s demand said that the party is not asking for details or specifications of the deal. “We are not asking for disclosure of specifications or the payload of the aircraft. We are not asking details of the equipment fitted in the aircraft…which gun or missile is loaded, and what is their range…. But the cost of the deal is not an issue of national security — it is an issue of loss to the public exchequer,” Surjewala said.
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