Why don’t you question PM on Rafale, asks Rahul

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “changed the entire Rafale deal” to help a businessman, a charge promptly refuted by the BJP.

“You ask me so many questions and I am always happy to answer all of them. I want to ask you, why you don’t question PM Modi on the Rafale deal? Why don’t you ask about Amit Shah’s son?” Gandhi said after inaugurating a convention of the All India Unorganised Workers Congress at party headquarters here.

“Why don’t you question the PM who changed the entire Rafale deal to help a businessman?” he said.

Reacting to the charge, the BJP said the Congress is reminded of its rule when it raked up such an issue. “They are finding it difficult to accept that there has been no case of corruption in the threeyear rule of the Modi government,” senior BJP leader and union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Prasad said.

The Congress on Tuesday accused the government of compromising national security in the purchase of 36 Rafale aircraft. It also linked the NDA’S deal with Dassault to a partnership between the French company and Reliance Defence Limited (RDL). RDL dismissed the charges as “baseless and unfounded” and threatened to take legal action against any party disseminating “defamatory allegations”.

The IAF said there was “no overpricing” in the purchase. “It is not overpricing... We have negotiated for 36 French fighter aircraft Rafale (at a price) lower than that in the contract. The government has negotiated a very good deal,” Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said.