‘Give me 20 minutes’: Rahul Gandhi dares PM to one-on-one debate on Rafale

Hours after he opened a debate on the Rafale deal in parliament, Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to renew the opposition’s demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the purchase of the 36 aircrafts.

Hours after he opened a debate on the Rafale deal in parliament, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a fresh attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to renew the opposition’s demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the purchase of the 36 aircrafts.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi arrives to attend the Parliament Winter Session in New Delhi, India on Wednesday, January 02, 2019.(Sonu Mehta/HT PHOTO)

Gandhi also challenged PM Modi to a debate on the Rafale row, one-on-one.

“Give me 20 minutes,” he said at a Press conference, the request directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who the Congress president has more than once today, alleged that he was hiding from the uncomfortable questions that he had posed.

WATCH | Rahul Gandhi dares PM Modi for a one-on-one debate on Rafale row 

The Congress president also brushed aside strong denials from Panaji and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the audio tape that the party has released today. The Congress said the audio tape is a conversation between Goa minister Vishwajit Rane and another person. In this, Gandhi claimed, the Goa health minister is heard saying that during a Goa cabinet meeting last week Parrikar stated he had an entire file and all documents relating to the Rafale deal lying in his bedroom.

Vishwajit Rane has denied that he has had this conversation and along with Parrikar, called the tapes doctored.

Asked, Gandhi shot back: “What else do you expect... but a denial”.

At his evening Press conference, Rahul Gandhi repeated the party’s charge about the audio tape and claimed “Parrikar is threatening the Prime Minister of India. He is threatening to blackmail the Prime Minister of India because he has the files on Rafale deal.”

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“Goa minister says that the chief minister said in a cabinet meeting that he has complete information about Rafale. He, in a way, threatened to blackmail the Prime Minister of India,” said Rahul Gandhi adding, “The question is what information is there in the bedroom of Parrikar and what is its impact on Narendra Modi.”

“There might be other tape of this nature. This is not the only one,” he added.

He also responded to barbs from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during the debate in parliament; the finance minister had taken a dig at the Congress president for what he described as, his “kindergarten math”.

“In his speech, Arun Jaitley asked where the figure of ₹1,600 crore comes from. Where does the Congress get this number? Jaitley himself said Rafale deal was of ₹58,000 crore. If you divide ₹58,000 by 36, the number of Rafale fighter jets to be bought, it comes at ₹1,600 crore. So you gave us this number.”

“Mr Jaitley, you gave the figure of ₹526 crore. Bid happened and the lowest bid went to Rafale. Figure of ₹526 crore comes from that bid only,” Rahul Gandhi said adding, “Now it is clear that price inflated from ₹526 crore to ₹1,600 crore.”

Rahul Gandhi alleged that “Narendra Modi changed the procedure, the air force objected to it. Sill he inflated the price to ₹1,600 crore…Truth can’t be masked.”