Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, 2 May, asserted that the row over Rafale deal was a “real scam” this election and questioned why the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was running parallel negotiations in the Rafale deal.
Speaking on the sidelines of his election rally in Chomu, Rahul said that the Congress has been “successful” in communicating about the Rafale deal.
“We have done surveys. When we started talking about Rafale, less than 20 percent people in India believed that Rafale was an issue. But now, close to 67 percent people believe that it is a real scam.”
“Why is the PMO running parallel negotiations in the Rafale deal? Why are defence ministry officials saying that the prime minister is directly negotiating. Let’s do a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee),” said Rahul Gandhi, in an exclusive interview to NDTV.
He also added how could the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar claim that he did not know about the “biggest defence deal in the world.”
Speaking to the channel, Rahul also added that the Rafale deal row has also exposed PM Modi and shattered the perception of a “honest politican, fighting corruption.”
Training his guns on Anil Ambani, Rahul added:
“Anil Ambani almost went to jail. He was bailed out by his brother. How can a man like this deliver the order? On the other hand, there was HAL.”
The Congress president stressed that his party was “fighting to win” and that it was not a long-term strategy. He also asserted that PM Modi will “not return to power.”
Rahul said that his party was helping the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh and blamed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal for lack of alliance in Delhi.
(With inputs from NDTV.)
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