Congress president Rahul Gandhi, FM Jaitley exchange barb over Rafale in Parliament

While Congress president Rahul Gandhi tried to corner the government in the Parliament over the Rafale Deal issue, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley countered him by accusing him of lying and raising the AgustaWestland deal and the National Herald case. 

"It is a tragedy for the country that the Grand Old Party is headed today by a gentleman who doesn't have an understanding what a combat aircraft is," Jaitley was quoted as saying in the Parliament.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday adjourned the house till 2 30 pm amid an uproar after she refused to allow Congress President Rahul Gandhi to play an audio tape which a Goa minister purportedly claims that former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar possesses files with all the of the India-France Rafale jet deal.

The Speaker asked Gandhi to authenticate the tape before playing it after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raised an objection.

"You have to first authenticate the audio clip and then play it," Mahajan told Gandhi.

While the Congress President did not agree, he wanted to read out the transcript of the clip, which also the Speaker disallowed.

"He does not want to authenticate the audio clip because he knows it is fake, and he is afraid," Jaitley said.

Earlier, in his speech, Rahul Gandhi led the offensive against the Narendra Modi government over the controversial Rafale Deal.

"The PM couldn't speak about the Rafale issue even in a staged interview. But we are going to discuss it right now. There are three pillars of the Rafale deal," he said.

He said: "The first pillar is the process, the second is pricing and the third pillar, which is also perhaps the most interesting one, is of paisa patronage. It must be answered, that despite the prevailing urgency why no Rafale jet on Indian soil? Why did the government change the deal without consultation with the Indian Air Force?"

"The PM has no guts to come to parliament and give answers on Rafale," the Congress president said, adding that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was "hiding" behind AIADMK members in the house. "The defence minister refuses to answer any questions, like she refused to reveal the pricing of the Rafale jets," he said.

"Even though HAL has a tremendous record, gave jobs to thousands of youngsters, our PM decided to hand over the deal to Anil Ambani, a failed businessman," Gandhi said.

In the audio clip, which Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjwala had played before reporters earlier, Goa minister Vishwajit Rane purportedly speaks to ‘X’, saying Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who was Defence Minister at the time of the Rafale agreement, has all  files in his bedroom and is holding the Modi government to ransom and not leaving his post despite illness.

Arun Jaitley called this Parrikar tape fabricated, and said there is no procedure to play it in the House.