President's address insipid, uninspiring: Congress

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday stuck to his claims of corruption in the Rafale fighter jets contract even as President Ram Nath Kovind said the first aircraft would be delivered soon.

“My stand has been the same. There has been corruption in the Rafale jet deal,” Rahul told reporters in front of the Parliament.

Outlining the Modi government's agenda for governance, Kovind had stressed on the modernisation of armed forces. “India is going to receive the delivery of first Rafale fighter aircraft and Apache helicopters in the near future,” he had said.

Congress slammed President's address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament as “hollow” and “uninspiring”.

“There is no reference, whatsoever, of the past commitments made to the people of India in the Presidential addresses by the Government beginning with 2014,” Sharma said.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, claimed that the President's reference to social thinker Sree Narayana Guru and Rabindranath Tagore was indicative of the BJP's ambition to make inroads in Kerala and West Bengal respectively.

“We have been discussing the issue. BJP has been focusing on these two states located on the two fringes of the country. BJP is exhausting all resources to capture Kerala and West Bengal,” Chowdhury said.

The Congress hit out at Modi government's push for 'one nation, one poll'.

“I think it is simply a diversionary tactic being deployed by the BJP party. They are failing on all fronts and trying to deflect the attention by raising the issue,” Chowdhury said.