Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a jibe at the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly ‘lying’ on the price paid per Rafale aircraft, citing a Dassault report.
“Dassault called RM’s (Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman) lie and released prices paid per RAFALE plane in report,” he said in a series of tweets.
“Qatar = 1319 crore, MODI (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) = 1670 crore, Manmohan Singh (MMS) = 570 crore,” he wrote, citing the Dassault Aviation Annual Report 2016.
“1,100 crore per plane or 36,000 crore i.e 10 per cent of our defence budget, in the pocket,” said Congress president.
“Meanwhile, our Army begs our government for money,” Rahul Gandhi added attaching a screenshot of the report.
Dassault called RM’s lie and released prices paid per RAFALE plane in report:
Qatar = 1319 Cr
MODI = 1670 Cr
MMS = 570 Cr1100 Cr per plane or 36,000 Cr i.e 10 % of our Defence budget, in the pocket.
Meanwhile, our Army begs our Govt. for money. pic.twitter.com/fE5tj4IaeN
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) March 16, 2018
Rahul Gandhi has attacked the PM Modi-led BJP government over the Rafale deal on multiple occasions. While, the Congress have slammed the BJP government over the Rafale deal, saying it is turning out to be yet another “mother scam”.
Also read | No JVA between HAL, Dassault for Rafale: Govt
Rahul Gandhi tweet comes after the Narendra Modi government on 14 March ruled out any plan to issue a White Paper on the Rafale fighter jet deal, which has been questioned by opposition parties.
The Opposition Congress had alleged that the deal for 36 Rafale fighter planes with the French government was finalised at a higher price than the previous deal for 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).
(With agency inputs)