New Delhi: Belittling Rahul Gandhi’s attack on the government over Rafale fighter jets deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday offered to arrange a “tutor" for the Congress chief to “get his facts right".
In an exclusive interview to CNN-News18, Sitharaman questioned why the Congress-led UPA government had been unable to finalise deal for the fighter jets, saying one should pose the same question to Rahul Gandhi.
“Each year, they (UPA) gave orders worth Rs 10,000 crore to HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited). We give orders worth Rs 20,000 crore. Why is Rahul Gandhi not being asked why they did not finalise the deal?" Sitharaman said.
Commenting on an audio recording cited by Congress as proof that “damaging" Rafale files were in the possession of her predecessor Manohar Parrikar, Sitharaman said, “He (Rahul Gandhi) seems to have all the ministry’s files. Is he sitting over the files or did some source leak it to him?"
Lashing out at the Congress over chaotic proceedings in Parliament, Sitharaman said the government is ready to answer questions, but the opposition is not ready to listen.
“It is for the concerned minister to give the reply. You started the debate and when the concerned minister got up to reply, you say ‘call the prime minister’," said the defence minister.
Earlier, slamming Nirmala Sitharaman for "lying" in Parliament over Rafale issue, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had demanded Defence Minister's resignation.
"When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM (Raksha Mantri) lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL. Or resign," he tweeted.
Gandhi questioned her over a Times of India report that said that India's leading defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is keenly awaiting formalisation of orders adding up to Rs 1 lakh crore mentioned by Sitharaman during the discussion on the Rafale fighter deal in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The report quoted a senior HAL management official as saying that no actual order had either been placed or a single rupee had been released to the company.
Hours after Gandhi's demand, the Defence Minister asked the Congress president to read the complete newspaper report, where it has been mentioned that "Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works".
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