A day after Rahul Gandhi tweeted saying that the “explosive Rafale secrets were in the possession of Goa CM”, the Congress president on Tuesday met ailing Manohar Parrikar at his office “to wish him recovery”.
The unexpected meeting comes days after the Congress claimed that Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has the files related to the Dassault Rafale deal in his bedroom.
On Monday, Rahul tweeted that even as “30 days had passed by since the Goa Audio Tapes on RAFALE were released, no FIR has been filed or an enquiry has been initiated against the minister”.
“It’s obvious that the tapes are authentic & that Goa CM, Parrikar, is in possession of explosive RAFALE secrets, that give him power over the PM,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.
Meanwhile, Gandhi is in Goa since Saturday with his mother and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
After meeting the CM, he tweeted his visit was a personal one.
At a press conference held earlier this month, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had claimed that a Goa minister revealed that the files related to the deal between India and France for the fighter jets are “in Parrikar’s bedroom”.
“Former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has the all the files relating to Rafale jet deal. The fashion in which every procedure was bypassed…it is all recorded in the files. Those files are with Mr Parrikar. Why are those files being hidden?” said Surjewala.
He also produced an audio recording, which he claimed was between Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Pratapsingh Rane and an unidentified individual, in which two voices can be heard discussing a cabinet meeting and the Rafale deal.
Read | Congress claims Rafale files are in Manohar Parrikar’s bedroom
Demanding to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether that was why the government was not allowing an all-party parliamentary inquiry, Surjewala produced the audio recording before the press.
According to the Congress, Rane told the unidentified voice on the other side that Parrikar at a meeting of the Goa cabinet said that no one could remove him as “all the Rafale papers are in my flat, in my bedroom”.
The voice, which the Congress claimed is of Rane, is heard telling the other person, “You can cross-check with somebody you are close to in the cabinet. This is something he said, that means he is holding them to ransom… He said it is in my bedroom here only in my flat, each and every document on Rafale.”
The deal for 36 Rafale jets was signed between India and France when Manohar Parrikar was Union Defence Minister. Demands for his replacement as Goa CM, a charge he assumed in March 2017, have risen ever since he fell severely unwell.
Reacting to the allegations, Rane had said the audio tape was doctored. He further accused the Congress of stooping to such a low level to doctor a tape to create miscommunication between the Cabinet and the CM.
“Mr Parrikar has never made any reference to Rafale or any documents. Have asked him for a criminal investigation into this,” Rane had said.
The deal for 36 Rafale jets was signed between India and France when Manohar Parrikar was Union Defence Minister. Demands for his replacement as Goa CM, a charge he assumed in March 2017, have risen ever since he fell severely unwell.