PM Modi doesn’t have guts to face questions on Rafale deal says Rahul Gandhi in LS

High drama was witnessed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday when Congress President Rahul Gandhi sought to play a purported recording of a conversation of Goa Minister Vishwajit P Rane on the Rafale deal.

He said questioning the process of finalising Rafale deal, “First pillar is process, second is pricing and the third and most interesting is patronage. Senior officers of the IAF chose Rafale after long negotiations, IAF wanted 126 aircraft, why was the demand changed to 36?”

Referring to the audio clip that insinuates that there is a file which implicates the PM in Rafale deal, he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of bypassing procedures to award the contract to a private entity after agreeing to a three-time hike in the price of each aircraft and reducing the number of planes to be bought.

He also accused the AIADMK of disrupting the proceedings of the Lok Sabha in order to 'protect' PM Modi.

Rahul Gandhi claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "does not have guts" to come to the Parliament to confront the questions on these issue and "hides" in his room.

The Congress leader also rejected Modi's claim in an interview that there was no personal allegation against him, saying this is not true as the entire nation is asking him a direct question.

"He (Modi) spoke for 90 minutes in a staged interview but still did not answer questions on the Rafale issue," Rahul Gandhi said.

Is it not true that defence ministry officials objected to the new price of ₹1600 crore, Rahul Gandhi said, accusing Modi of favouring his "dear friend" and "failed businessman" Anil Ambani.

Pandemonium broke out when Rahul Gandhi took out his mobile phone and wanted to play the recorded conversation amidst stiff opposition from the ruling benches, including Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The drama unfolded during a discussion on the Rafale deal on which the Congress has been pressing for the formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

The Supreme Court verdict stated that probing Rafale scam does not come under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, but they never said that JPC shouldn't be formed, he said.

As shouting continued, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan asked Rahul Gandhi to authenticate the purported conversation and sternly told him not to play any recording.

"They are so afraid, I will not play the tape and if it pleases you but...," he said adding he would read from the taped conversation.

You can watch Rahul Gandhi addressing the floor of the Parliament here:

With inputs from agencies