New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi, who had unsuccessfully made an attempt to craft a Congress campaign against the BJP in the 2019 elections around the deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets Wednesday expressed his congratulations to the Indian Air Force after the first batch of the combat fighter jets landed at the IAF’s Ambala air base. He took to Twitter to convey his congratulations.
Congratulations to IAF for Rafale.
Meanwhile, can GOI answer:
1) Why each aircraft costs ₹1670 Crores instead of ₹526 Crores?
2) Why 36 aircraft were bought instead of 126?
3) Why was bankrupt Anil given a ₹30,000 Crores contract instead of HAL?
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 29, 2020
However, Gandhi then took aim at the BJP-led government and fired three questions at the Centre. He questioned grave irregularities in the 36 fighter jets deal with the French defence manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
The Congress had also tweeted a congratulatory note to the IAF a few hours earlier. That one went ahead to claim credit for zeroing in on the Rafale fighter in 2012. It has finally borne fruit, the Congress had tweeted before going on to accuse the government of buying the jets in an extremely overpriced deal.
His campaign, however, centerd around these allegations of irregularities and his “chowkidar chor hai” jibe hurlted at PM Modi had backfired in a big way in 2019. Rahul Gandhi had since then hardly spoken of the deal.
Wednesday was an exception, possibly given the elevated hype around the first batch of the planes that reached Ambala air base. Gandhi’s congratulatory note to the IAF, however, is also designed to underscore that he did not question the decision of buying the Rafale jets – it was a Congress government which has selected it – but only the terms and conditions of the deal.
PNN/Agencies