The Bharatiya Janata Party has launched a series of attacks on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi as claims and counter claims about the Rafale deal and accusations of corruption in the government have been growing since former French President François Hollande’s revelations.
On Friday, a French media outlet quoted Hollande as saying that his government “did not have a say” in choosing Anil Ambani’s company Reliance Defence for the Rafale deal. The former French president claimed the Indian government had proposed Reliance Defence’s name for the pact, which was agreed upon when he was president. India’s Ministry of Defence, the French government and defence firm Dassault Aviation, which manufactures the jets, have contradicted his claim.
Union minister Rajnath Singh was the first BJP leader to comment on Hollande’s statement. He remarked that the allegations were baseless. Soon after, several other party leaders put out statements on the deal, with most attacking the Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi.
Union Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman said the Congress and Gandhi “repeat [the] untruth several times” and use “brazen and abusive language” about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “They betray their sense of desperation in being out-of-power,” Sitharaman tweeted on Saturday. “In our govt [government] there is no corruption. No wonder today the buzz is #RahulKaPuraKhandanChor [Rahul’s family are thieves].”
Union Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was wrong to expect a mature statement from Gandhi since his “entire family is arraigned for scams like the National Herald scam and the Bofors scandal”, reported ANI.
“No party chief ever called the Prime Minister of India a thief,” Prasad said, referring to Gandhi’s accusations on Saturday. “We never expect anything better from him to say. Neither he has any quality nor any ability. He has become the party chief only because of family politics. We don’t expect anything from him at all.”
Prasad questioned why the Rafale deal was sent back for re-examination in 2012 six months after Dassault was identified as the lowest bidder. “Our explicit charge is this: they [Congress] did not get a bribe, that’s why,” Prasad said, according to NDTV.
In 2012, the United Progressive Alliance government started negotiating with Dassault to buy 126 Medium Multi-Rule Combat Aircraft. According to the negotiations back then, Dassault was to supply 18 Rafale jets in fly-away condition, while HAL, along with the company, was to manufacture 108 aircraft in India. However, the deal did not work out.
BJP National President Amit Shah questioned if the Congress was forming an alliance with Pakistan. “Rahul Gandhi says ‘Modi Hatao’,” Shah tweeted on Saturday. “Pakistan says ‘Modi Hatao’. Now Pakistan also supports Rahul Gandhi’s baseless allegations against PM Modi. Is Congress forming an international mahagathbandhan against PM Modi.” Shah used the hashtag #NaPakNaCongress [neither Pakistan nor Congress].
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda said Gandhi’s “derogatory language” against the prime minister “is most condemnable”, reported ANI. “It shows the height of frustration through which he is passing,” Nadda said. “I would like to make it clear that such activities aren’t going to establish him in politics.”
Nadda said Gandhi’s understanding of politics and numbers related to the Rafale deal was “very limited”. “The figures Rahul Gandhi is quoting is misleading [and] it also shows that how much less homework he has done as far as the Rafale deal is concerned,” he said.
Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal accused Gandhi and his family of having “been the primary source of corruption in the country”. “They are today blaming Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi in the Rafael (sic) deal, who has given India its most honest administration since Independence.”
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha accused the Congress of repeating lies. “ Rahul Gandhi ji may have invented a machine to convert aloo [potato] to sona [gold] but unfortunately for him, a machine to convert a lie into truth as not been invented yet.”
Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar said Gandhi and his family have “been stuck in the Bofors scam” for years “because there was truth in it”. “You cannot corner anyone with lies,” Akbar told ANI. “For that, you need truth...Sometimes I feel he [Gandhi] has lost his balance due to elections.”
Akbar said the Memorandum of Understanding was signed when the UPA was in power in 2012. “They say that the deal between Dassault and Reliance took place a few days before signing, which is absolutely untrue,” he said.
Minister of State for Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore said Gandhi and his party were resorting to “fake propaganda”. “But truth will always prevail,” Rathore tweeted. “Ex Presidents and governments of other countries too are now calling Rahul Gandhi a liar. ‘The End’ of congress is here.”
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