Congress singing tune of falsehood, says law minister

The Congress’ stand on the Rafale deal is not in country’s interest and the party was collectively singing a tune of falsehood, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday.

The senior leader said the Congress is a ‘byword for corruption’ and it is raking up a “manufactured” issue to create a smoke screen. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are engaged in a war of words over pricing of Rafale fighter jets bought by the Narendra Modi-led government in 2016.

“Dynastic parties are always a crowd around a family. That is true of the Congress. Since a member of the family has resorted to falsehood, the crowd around the family has no option but to collectively sing the tune of falsehood. This is what has happened today,” he said.

The BJP leader claimed that several Congress leaders may understand the sensitivity of the deal but were “forced” to demand that the NDA government share details of the fighter jet to defend Gandhi.

Prasad said the price arrived at during NDA stipulated better term than the one during the UPA, and the price of the each aircraft was 9% lesser. “The entire Rafale deal with inter governmental agreement in 2016 for 36 aircrafts was signed after proper approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security,” Prasad said. “All the established procedures have been properly followed…”