Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday reiterated that the Rafale fighter jet deal was the country's "biggest ever" defence scam and claimed that the defence minister had no role in changing the contract.
Addressing a pre-poll rally in Jaipur, ahead of the Assembly polls in Rajasthan, Rahul attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned, "Defence minister has accepted not changing the contract. Then who changed the contract? Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a "partner" in the corruption".
"PM Modi carries a list; says he doesn't want to be prime minister but instead chowkidar (gatekeeper) of the nation. When asked questions on corruption, in a speech of 1.5 hours he doesn't speak on Rafale for even a minute," the Congress president added.
Rahul also took a swipe at Modi over his "56-inch chest" remark made by Modi at election rallies in the run-up to the 2014 polls, and accused him of nepotism by giving contracts to his friends.
"The UPA govt had bought an airplane for Rs 540 crore while PM Modi himself gave Rs 1,600 crore to the French company for 1 aircraft. As per the new contract, each fighter jet is for Rs 16,000 crore, more than three times the price quoted by UPA," Rahul added.
He also claimed that no Indians, except for Narendra Modi, will be benefitted by this contract. "The fighter jet will now be made in France instead. The contract was given to Anil Ambani, who has no qualification to receive this contract except being PM Modi's friend," Rahul said.
Girls beware
Taking a dig at Modi's flagship programme "Beti Bachao Beti Padhao", the Congress chief said, "While creating this tagline Modi government didn't tell you who to save your daughters from. Actually girls have to be saved from BJP members. In UP, a BJP MLA raped a girl and PM Modi stayed quiet."
Rahul posed a question while addressing the party workers in Jaipur: "When I went to meet the PM and asked him to write off the debt of farmers, his response was - nothing. When the big ticket industrialists take credit worth lakhs of assets and do not return it, you call it non-performing assets. But when a farmer or a small businessman is unable to pay off his debt, you call him a defaulter and put them in jail. Why this difference of treatment?"
Rahul also claimed that if the Congress came to power, it will bring petrol and diesel under GST. "The reason why rates have not come down despite bringing GST is because BJP government has not included petrol and diesel under this tax," he charged.
Published 11 August 2018, 16:08 IST