Congress President Rahul Gandhi met Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday, a day after he tweeted that Parrikar was in possession of “explosive Rafale secrets”, NDTV reported.
Gandhi said he visited Parrikar to wish him a speedy recovery. “It was a personal visit,” he tweeted. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former defence minister is suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Gandhi met Parrikar at the Chief Minister’s Office in Panaji and the meeting last for about five minutes, according to Hindustan Times. Gandhi is in Goa on a vacation with his mother Sonia Gandhi.
Gandhi on Monday claimed that an audio clip related to the Rafale deal released earlier this month was authentic. The Congress on January 2 had released an audio clip in which it claimed someone believed to be Goa minister Vishwajeet Rane said that Parrikar was aware of all the details of the deal. The voice in the clip alleged that Parikar had claimed to have “all the files related to the Rafale deal in his bedroom”.
However, both Rane and Parrikar had said that the clip was inauthentic and doctored.
The Congress has accused the Centre of signing an overpriced deal and helping Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Ltd, which had no prior experience in the sector before landing a contract with Dassault Aviation that manufactures the fighter jets.
Gandhi had previously claimed that Parrikar was blackmailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the information in his possession. Congress leader and former Union minister Jaipal Reddy had reiterated Gandhi’s claims, saying Parrikar was trying to blackmail Modi in a bid to retain his post.
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