On Tuesday, the war of words continued between the Congress and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on the Rafale deal. Both sides, as always kept on making making fresh allegations against each other.
Minutes after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “middleman” for businessman Anil Ambani in the Rafale jets deal with France and demanded criminal proceedings against him for treachery, the BJP responded with a counter offensive. BJP charged Rahul for acting at the desire of Rafale rival firms.
Shankar Prasad accused Gandhi of working as a 'lobbyist' for competitive aircraft supplier companies. “From where did he get the email of Airbus? Airbus itself is under clout for deals during UPA regime”, Prasad said referring to an email from an Airbus executive which was cited by Rahul at a press conference in Delhi today.
Rahul said that the Airbus executive had written that Anil Ambani met the French Defence Minister and had told him 10 days before the Rafale deal was signed that he was going to get it. Rahul went on to question the Prime Minister on how Ambani knew about the Rafale deal 10 days in advance when Defence Minister, HAL and Foreign Secretary didn’t know of it. “If this is true then PM is in violation of official secrets act, criminal action must be initiated on this basis”, he told the reporters.
“This is treason, Narendra Modi is doing what spies do, he is informing somebody of a defence matter. He is under oath to protect these secrets”, added Rahul and also demanded criminal proceedings against PM Modi.