Congress, BJP trade barbs after Hollande's statement on Rafale deal

Rahul: PM should come clean, form JPC to probe deal; Prasad: I can understand your pain

In another reminder that elections are near and could not only turn out to be one of the most bitterly fought in independent India’s history, but also have a bearing on India’s relations with some of its neighbours, the level of political discourse plummeted further on Saturday.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi of being a “thief” because of his alleged role in ensuring that a company owned by industrialist Anil Ambani got the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Gandhi said: “The PM and Anil Ambani jointly carried out a Rs 1.3 trillion surgical srtrike on the Indian defence forces. Modi ji you dishonoured the blood of our martyred soldiers. Shame on you. You betrayed India’s soul.”

Gandhi demanded the PM should come clean on former French President Francois Hollande’s statement and demanded a joint parliamentary committee, or JPC, probe into the deal. Hollande has said the Indian side insisted upon a particular firm as the partner of Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of Rafale jets. Hollande’s office told media outlets that he continued to stand by his statement.  The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back by saying the entire Nehru-Gandhi family were a bunch of “thieves”. Union minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Nehru-Gandhi family was the “fountainhead” of corruption. He described Gandhi’s attack on Modi as “shameful”, and said he could understand the pain of the Congress president since the Modi government has shut the doors on corruption, and not given protection to middlemen.

Neither the PM, who addressed public rallies in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, nor BJP chief Amit Shah, who addressed party workers in Rajasthan, responded to the Hollande’s statement or the controversy over the Rafale deal.

Modi will address a rally in Jharkhand on Sunday, where he will launch the ambitious health insurance scheme. On social media, the Congress and other Opposition parties ran a campaign hash tagged ‘mera PM chor hai’ (my PM is a thief). The BJP responded with its ‘Rahul ka pura khandan chor’ (entire family of Rahul Gandhi is of thieves), with senior ministers like Piyush Goyal also tweeting using the hashtag. In the afternoon, interacting with college teachers, Gandhi expressed concern at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) takeover of educational institutions. He said the Congress is fighting the attempted capture of India by the RSS. He said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently said the Sangh is going the organise the whole nation.