Congress president Rahul Gandhi again trained his guns on Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking for her resignation if she fails to present proof of what she said in Parliament related to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

In a tweet that also contained a Times of India report, Gandhi alleged that Sitharaman lied in Parliament regarding orders given to HAL.

“When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM’s Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign,” he said in the tweet.

Gandhi posted screenshots of the media report which stated that even though the Defence Minister mentioned about Rs 1 lakh crore worth of orders to given to HAL, the defence PSU is yet to receive any.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, too, accused Sitharaman of lying.

“The Lying Defence Minister’s Lies Gets Exposed! Def Min claimed that procurement orders worth ₹1 Lakh Cr provided to HAL! HAL says Not a SINGLE PAISA has come, as Not a SINGLE ORDER has been signed! For the first time, HAL forced to take a loan of ₹1000 Cr to pay salaries!” he said in a tweet.

The Lying Defence Minister’s Lies Gets Exposed!

Def Min claimed that procurement orders worth ₹1 Lakh Cr provided to HAL!

HAL says Not a SINGLE PAISA has come, as Not a SINGLE ORDER has been signed!

For the first time,HAL forced to take a loan of ₹1000 Cr to pay salaries! pic.twitter.com/IzoRvHW1VM

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 6, 2019

The report cited by the Congress quoted an unnamed senior HAL management official saying that no actual order had either been placed or a single rupee had been released to the company.

The media report also said that HAL was forced to borrow around Rs 1,000 crore to pay salaries.

The last line of the report, however, stated that as per Lok Sabha records Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed and only said that they are in the works.

It is this point that the Defence Minister drew attention to in her response to Gandhi’s

“Please read the complete report in @timesofindia to which you (@RahulGandhi) are referring:  ‘However, as the LS record shows, Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works’,” read a tweet posted by the Defence Minister hours after Gandhi’s accusation.

Please read the complete report in ⁦@timesofindia⁩ to which you ( ⁦@RahulGandhi⁩ )are referring: “However, as the LS record shows, Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works.” | India News – Times of India https://t.co/2v6MAZ2t3o

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) January 6, 2019

In a tweet from the Twitter handle of the minister’s office, Sitharaman said that HAL has signed contracts worth Rs 26,570.8o crore between 2014 and 2018.

“It’s a shame that the president of @INCIndia is spreading lies nd
misleading the country.HAL has signed contracts worth 26570.8Cr (Between 2014 & 2018) nd contracts worth 73000Cr are in the pipeline.Will @RahulGandhi apologise to the country from the floor of the house nd resign?” read the tweet which also contained documents showing the orders placed by Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force with the defence PSU.

It’s a shame that the president of @INCIndia is spreading lies nd
misleading the country.HAL has signed contracts worth 26570.8Cr (Between 2014 & 2018) nd contracts worth 73000Cr are in the pipeline.Will @RahulGandhi apologise to the country from the floor of the house nd resign? pic.twitter.com/PRWEMFUjml

— NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) January 6, 2019

Another tweet mocked the 48-year-old Gandhi asking him to “start from ABCs”.

“Dear Shri @RahulGandhi , looks like you really need to start from ABCs. Someone like you who is hellbent on misleading the public will quote an article even before reading it,” read the tweet.

Dear Shri @RahulGandhi , looks like you really need to start from ABCs.

Someone like you who is hellbent on misleading the public will quote an article even before reading it. https://t.co/D6osVZfDU9

— NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) January 6, 2019

On Friday, Gandhi, who has been relentlessly attacking the BJP government over the Dassault Rafale   deal and grant of the offset contract to a private company, said on Friday that Sitharaman evaded his questions on the controversial deal.