BJP to move privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will move a privilege motion against Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha for "putting forth falsehood and misleading the Parliament".

"BJP MPs will move a privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi for putting forth falsehood and misleading the Parliament," said Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar on Friday after Gandhi levelled a slew of accusations against the government.

Kumar further attacked the Congress President by calling him ill-informed and immature.

He said, "His (Rahul Gandhi) behaviour was childish. He has grown old but it is unfortunate that he has not grown up. It is unfortunate that the president of Congress is so ill-informed and immature."

During his speech in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi walked up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hugged him after stating that 'you (BJP) can call me 'Pappu' and abuse me but, I do not have any hate for you'. He also raised the controversial Rafale deal while accusing Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of lying to the nation quoting the 'secrecy clause' in the pact.

"Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier said that she will tell the country about the cost. However, later she said it's a secrecy pact between both the countries (India and France). I asked the French President about this secrecy pact, but he denied the existence of any such pact. He even told me that he has no issues in making the cost public," Gandhi said.

The Congress President alleged that the Defence Minister had lied under pressure from the Prime Minister, he further accused PM Modi of not being truthful.

Gandhi also questioned that if "Rafale sold same 48 aircrafts to Egypt and Qatar in 2015 for Rs 1319.80 crore per aircraft, then why did India pay Rs 1670.70 crore per Rafale aircraft?"

Replying to the allegations, Sitharaman said that Gandhi was misleading the House. She added that a Secrecy Agreement with France was signed in 2008 (under the Congress-led government) and the Rafale deal was also covered in it.

The NDA government had signed a deal with France based Dassault Aviation to purchase 36 Rafale jets, which is slated to be one of the world's biggest military procurements in recent history and could cost the Indian government USD 15 billion.