The verbal war between Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley continued till late evening on Wednesday as the former said the rate of Rafale jets were released to the public by the latter during his speech in Lok Sabha. The Congress President said the rate decided by the UPA government for the jets was ₹526 crore and it was increased to ₹1600 crore by the present government.
‘No comparison’
“Had Air Force objected to the pricing?” Gandhi told reporters after a fiery debate in Parliament on the matter. Jaitley retorted by saying the Congress is comparing two unequals and calling it a ‘scam’. “Even a fool will not compare prices of a simple flyaway aircraft with a weaponised jet. Even in the offer made to the UPA government, there were two different prices, one of the flyaway aircraft and the offer of the weaponised aircraft,” Jaitley said tweetd after the Congress President’s press conference.
Rahul Gandhi said former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has publicly said he doesn’t know the details of the deal but said in a meeting of Goa’s Cabinet that the entire material is in his bed room. “The decision makers cannot stand up and defend their decisions, but Jaitley defends their actions. This is hollow. The country knows the truth,” Rahul Gandhi said and added that a JPC probe will bring out the truth behind the deal.
“The Prime Minister is involved in the corruption. Let us have a JPC. The names of two people, of Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani, will come up,” he said adding the Congress is not questioning the capacity of Rafale jet. He said if comes back to power, the Congress will probe the deal.
Taped recording
Earlier, the Congress released a recorded conversation of the Health Minister of Goa Vishwajit Rane in which he states that Parrikar said in a Cabinet meeting that he has the entire Rafale files in his bedroom. Both Parrikar and Rane have refused any such conversations and said the Congress is fabricating audio to prove political points. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused the permission to table the recording in Lok Sabha.
Rahul Gandhi said the Prime Minister changed the old deal of 126 aircraft and replaced it with a new deal of 36 . “Did the Air Force changed their demand for the number of planes or did you unilaterally, without asking the Air Force, changed this demand,” he said.
He said the price of the aircraft under the new deal increased from ₹526 crore to ₹1,600 crore and the new price was negotiated by the Prime Minister.