Congress president Rahul Gandhi sharpened his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday over the Rafale deal. Rahul Gandhi claimed the PM is afraid of Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar because he “knows the truth about Rafale”.
“Narendra Modi is afraid of Manohar Parrikar. Modi can’t say anything against him and the reason is Rafale files,” Rahul Gandhi said at a Congress youth programme in New Delhi.
“We asked the PM and the defence minister three-four questions on Rafale. He (Modi) couldn’t answer. He looked here and there, but couldn’t look us in the eye,” Rahul Gandhi said. He claimed Parrikar, a former defence minister, had Rafale files in his closet and that’s why no one could remove him from Goa.
The Congress president’s comments came on a day he was accused by Parrikar of using his visit on the ailing chief minister for “petty political gains”. In a rally on Tuesday, Rahul in a had said that Parrikar, a former defence minister, has already said that “he had nothing to do with the new Rafale deal.”
Follow live updates here: ‘If we come to power, will assure minimum income to all poor people,’ says Rahul Gandhi
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{{/usCountry}}The meeting between Gandhi and Parrikar, lasted about 10 minutes. It came a day after Gandhi referred to a purported audio tape in which a Goa minister claimed that Parrikar possessed files relating to the Rafale deal.
Claiming that the truth of the Rafale fighter jet will come out one day, Rahul Gandhi said “The truth is coming from within the government.”
“The prime minister bypassed the defence ministry, the generals, the negotiators who had brought the price down to Rs 526 crore per plane and brought in a new deal, a more expensive deal so that he could benefit Anil Ambani,” he said.
On the purported tape of Rafale, Rahul Gandhi said,“You heard the tape. The PM is trying to keep Parrikar happy. But when the CBI tries to probe the deal, Modi tells Amit Shah to stop the CBI and the CBI chief is removed in the dead of the night. The Air Force is saying that they were bypassed,” Rahul Gandhi said.