PM Modi versus Rahul Gandhi on Sitharaman’s Rafale defence

In a blistering attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the party's desperation was visible in their attack on a woman defence minister. Modi's attack came hours after Congress president Rahul Gandhi had claimed at a rally in Jaipur that the PM had run away to Punjab and had left a woman to defend him in the Rafale debate in Lok Sabha. “On Rafale, when we raised questions in the Lok Sabha, we asked the PM to answer some questions. The PM didn't come to the Lok Sabha for even a minute. Nirmala Sitharaman spoke for two and a half hours, but couldn't answer our questions. We demolished her arguments. But the PM couldn't show his face in Lok Sabha even for one minute,” he said. “He asked a woman to defend him, and you saw how for two and a half hours, she couldn't defend him,” Rahul Gandhi said. Responding to Rahul Gandhi in Agra, Modi lauded Sitharaman and said it was the first time that a woman was holding the office of Defence Minister.