Rafale row: BJP hits back at Rahul over 'fun has just begun' jibe

Criticising Congress president Rahul Gandhi's "fun has just begun" remark over Rafale deal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that nothing else could be expected from a leader whose entire family is involved in scams.

Speaking to ANI, Union Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "It is a matter of shame for the Congress party that a person like Rahul Gandhi, who is irresponsible and a big liar, is their party president. We cannot expect anything else from a leader whose entire family is involved in scams, be it Bofors or National Herald."

On Monday, while addressing his party's social media volunteers in his parliamentary constituency Amethi, Gandhi said, "The man (Prime Minister Modi), who came to remove corruption, has himself given Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani. The fun has just begun, things are set to turn more interesting. In the next two to three months you will have fun after we will show you Narendra Modi's work - Rafale, Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi, demonetisation, Gabbar Singh Tax. All of it is theft. One by one, we will show that Modi ji is not a gatekeeper, but a thief."

Deploring Gandhi's statement, Prasad asserted that the BJP will expose the Congress party. "I would like to ask Rahul Gandhi that why his government in January 2012 chose Dassault Aviation for a lower price and why in June the Congress re-examined the deal? The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was also ditched by the former prime minister Manmohan Singh-led government. The Congress had an agreement with the Reliance in 2012; at that time, our government was not in power," he added.

Continuing his tirade against the Congress chief, Prasad said, "In the history of independent India, no national party president has ever made such comments about a prime minister. We will expose the Congress party."

The BJP leader further accused Gandhi of playing politics on Pakistan's agenda. "Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan speak similar words these days. Now, the people of Pakistan are saying that they want Rahul Gandhi to be the Prime Minister of India," he added.

The Congress and BJP have been at the loggerheads over the Rafale deal, signed by the Narendra Modi government in 2016 to buy 36 fighter jets from France's Dassault Aviation.

The war of words between the BJP and the Congress intensified after former French president Francois Hollande claimed that the Indian government proposed Reliance Defence's name as the offset partner for Dassault Aviation. However, he later backtracked and said only Dassault could comment on the partnership.

The Congress has alleged that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government procured each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. However, the government has refused the allegations.