Congress President Rahul Gandhi hit back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s argument on the selection of a private firm as an offset partner in the Rafale deal.

In a series of tweets posted on Sunday, the 48-year-old Gandhi said asked Jaitley and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “stop lying” and order a JPC probe.

Addressing Jaitley as “Jetlie”, Gandhi wrote, ““Mr Jetlie’s speciality is his ability to spin ‘2 truths’, or lies, with fake self righteousness & indignation to defend the indefensible.”

“It’s high time he, the RM & our PM stop lying and call a JPC to establish the full, uncorrupted truth about the #RafaleScam,” he added.

Mr Jetlie’s speciality is his ability to spin “2 truths”, or lies, with fake self righteousness & indignation to defend the indefensible. It’s high time he, the RM & our PM stop lying and call a JPC to establish the full, uncorrupted truth about the #RafaleScam. pic.twitter.com/iQxrV5ooN5

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 23, 2018

Gandhi’s tweet was accompanied with the screenshot of a news paper which questioned the government over former French President Francois Hollande’s remarks regarding a private firm becoming an offset partner in the jet deal at the instance of the Modi government.

The remarks set off a major political slugfest in the country with accusations and counteraccusations flying between the Opposition parties and the government.

Defending the deal, Jaitley questioned the veracity of Hollande’s claims.

Iterating that there was “no partnership as suggested by the former French President”, Jaitley even found a link between one of Gandhi’s tweets and Hollande’s assertions.

“It is no coincidence that on April 30 Rahul Gandhi had tweeted that “globalised corruption. This Rafale aircraft really does fly far and fast! It’s also going to drop some big bunker buster bombs in the next couple of weeks.

“The former French President’s first statement rhymes with Rahul Gandhi’s prediction,” Jaitley said in his blogspot referring to Hollande who was quoted in an article by a French website as claiming that the Indian government had asked the French government to nominate Reliance Defence as its India partner in the deal.

(With inputs from agencies.)