New Delhi: Stepping up his attack on the Modi government over the Rafale deal issue, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday urged all Indians to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers the questions he posed in Parliament on the fighter jet agreement with France.
“RM (Raksha Mantri) spoke for 2 hrs in Parliament, but she couldn’t answer the 2 simple questions I asked her,” Gandhi tweeted.
He also posted a video of the two questions he posed to the defence minister in Parliament.
Gandhi had asked, “Anil Ambani got the largest part of the offset contract. Here he have Anil Ambani saying himself (shows paper) that ‘they’re the largest offset partner of Dassault worth Rs 30,000 crore; we have been given life cycle opportunity worth Rs 1 lakh crore.’ And the Defence Minister didn’t mention his name? The main question is how did Anil Ambani get the contract and who gave it to him? You spoke for two hours but didn’t answer. Who took the contract away from HAL and gave it to Anil Ambani?”
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He added, “The Defence Minister admitted that due to an emergency situation, they carried out a bypass surgery. She admitted that Narendra Modi cancelled the contract of 126 aircraft. Now my question is, after eight-10 years of negotiation, involving officials from the Air Force and Defence Ministry as well as the IAF chief, years of their work went into negotiating this deal. My question to the Defence Minister is simple. And I want her to answer in yes or no. My question is very simple when this bypass surgery was done by the prime minister? Did the highest officials of the Defence Ministry object to the deal? Did they make a statement or suggest to the defence minister or anybody else that the prime minister should not be bypassing the defence establishment?”
He had asked Sitharaman to reply in a yes or no.
Posting the video on his Twitter account, Gandhi said: “Watch & SHARE this video. Let every Indian ask the PM & his Ministers these questions.”
Also Read: Stop Abusing Me and Answer Questions on Rafale: Rahul Gandhi Hits Back at Arun Jaitley
With his tweet, Gandhi used the hashtag “2SawalDoJawab”.
The Congress has alleged irregularities in the deal for 36 aircraft and claimed that the Narendra Modi government is buying them at a price much higher than the one that was being negotiated by the previous government. The party has also been accusing the government of favouring Anil Ambani’s firm in the deal.
However, the government, as well as Ambani, have rejected all the allegations.
(With PTI inputs)