Rafale Deal: Nirmala Sitharaman lashes out at Rahul Gandhi over 'thief' remark against PM Modi

Using the hashtag #RahulKaPuraKhandanChor, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lashed out at the Congress president Rahul Gandhi for using ‘abusive language’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversial Rafale deal.

"The @INCIndia & Shri. @RahulGandhi repeat untruth several times and use brazen & abusive language about @PMOIndia @narendramodi. They betray their sense of desperation in being out-of-power. In our govt there is no corruption. No wonder today the buzz is #RahulKaPuraKhandanChor," Sitharaman's tweet read. 

The @INCIndia & Shri. @RahulGandhi repeat untruth several times and use brazen & abusive language about @PMOIndia @narendramodi. They betray their sense of desperation in being out-of-power. In our govt there is no corruption. No wonder today the buzz is #RahulKaPuraKhandanChor https://t.co/o76HiaYtDh

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) September 22, 2018

Earlier, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad while attending a press conference said, “Why was the Rafale deal sent back for re-examination in 2012 just six months after Dassault was identified as the lowest bidder? Our explicit charge is this: they (Congress) did not get a bribe, that’s why.

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Prasad also spoke about the statements given out by the French government and Dassault in which they had said that both the Indian and French governments had no influence in picking the offset partner as per the “offset clause”.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that former French president Francois Hollande has termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘thief’ in the controversial Rafale deal and joint Parliamentary probe in the deal.

Hollande had said in an interview that the French government had no role in enabling an Indian firm get the “offset clause”.

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Gandhi questioned Modi’s silence over the issue and sought answers citing Hollande’s interview.

"For the first time, an ex-French President is calling our PM a thief. It is a question of the dignity of the office of Prime Minister. It is the question of the future of our jawans and the Air Force. It is very important for PM now to either accept Mr. Hollande’s statement or state that Mr. Hollande is lying or tell what the truth is," Gandhi had said. 

"What I'm surprised at is that PM is completely silent. Not one word has come out from PM's mouth on this. This is from a (former) President of France, who had a one-on-one meeting with PM where the Rafale deal was decided," he had added.