Rafale row: HAL manufactured planes used for carrying out Air strike in Pak, says Rahul

Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that Anil Ambani's firm which never manufactured a plane was chosen in Rafale deal over the Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) which manufactured planes used for carrying out air strikes in Balakot.

"Air Force people wrote in the file that Narendra Modi is doing direct negotiations with France government and Rafale. People of India suffer a loss of Rs 30,000 crore. On the other hand, Anil Ambani got money for free. He never manufactured a plane and he did not know it. Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) knows how to manufacture a plane and has been manufacturing planes for 70 years," Gandhi said while addressing an election rally here.

"The planes which had dropped bombs in Balakot? It was HAL. Planes like Sukhoi, Mirage, Mig, Jaguar. HAL is a government company manufacturing planes for 70 years," he emphasized.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) had carried out aerial strikes at Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) camps in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

The Congress chief further attacked the Prime Minister for evading his questions over Rafale deal in the Parliament.

"When I asked him a question in the Parliament. He spoke for one and a half hours, took names of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi but never talked about corruption, Anil Ambani and Rafale. He could not look into the eyes of the country," he said while campaigning for Congress's Maharashtra unit president Ashok Chavan who is contesting from Nanded seat, one of 10 Lok Sabha constituencies that are going to polls in the second phase on April 18.

Gandhi reiterated his poll promise of giving Rs 72, 000 per annum or Rs 3.60 lakh in five years in the accounts of five crore families in the country under his party's NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) scheme.

The Congress chief further spoke of rolling out of two budgets--National Budget and Farmer Budget-- if his party voted to power.

"There used to be two budgets-- National Budget and Railway Budget. We have decided that after winning General elections, there will be two budgets. One will be the National Budget but the other would not be a Railway Budget, it will be the Farmer's budget," he said.

"We will tell everything related to farmers at the beginning including loan waiver, minimum support price, crop insurance etc," Gandhi said.