The Congress on Tuesday stepped up pressure on the Modi government over the Rafale deal, as it submitted a notice to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly misleading the House on the commercial value of the deal to buy Rafale fighter jets from France.
The Congress is keen to make the Rafale deal one of the key issues in the run-up to the 2019 elections, in an attempt to dent the Modi government’s corruption-free image. So in what seemed like a coordinated attack, moments after submitting the privilege motion notice, party chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted that India has had “four revolving” Defence Ministers since 2014 to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “space to personally re-negotiate” the deal with France.
The Congress’s move comes days after four BJP MPs moved a privilege motion against Mr. Gandhi for stating “falsehood” against the Defence Minister.
‘House misled’
“Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French. India has had 4 'RAFALE Mantris.’ But, none of them knows what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he won’t speak!” tweeted Mr. Gandhi. He tagged an Amul advertisement that had the Rafale issue as a spoof with the tagline ‘Pass or Rafail.’
The four Defence Ministers that the Congress chief referred to were Arun Jaitley, who held the portfolio twice, Manohar Parrikar, and now Ms. Sitharaman.
“I give notice of my intention to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making a misleading statement in his speech on the debate of no-confidence motion in [the] Lok Sabha on July 20,” read the letter of the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Multiple sets (for the Prime Minister and for the Defence Minister) have been submitted by Congress MPs — Mr. Kharge, Veerappa Moily, K.V. Thomas, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajeev Satav — after meeting her personally.
‘False claim’
In his reply to the no-trust motion last Friday, the Prime Minister asserted that revealing the purchase price of Rafale jet fighters was against national interests.
The Congress leaders claimed the Prime Minister’s claim about transparency in the agreement was factually incorrect, untrue and deliberately made with the intention of misleading the House.
On the Defence Minister, the Congress letter said her assertion on the floor of the House was “absolutely false” and she “wilfully misled not only the members of the House, but also the entire nation.”
