Congress steps up anti-Rafale campaign in state

GUWAHATI: Congress general secretary and former Union minister Mukul Wasnik on Monday said the Rafale deal was "BJP's biggest scam".
But in a state where lakhs of people mired in uncertainty about their future after their names are excluded from the draft NRC and flood causing misery to many, is the Rafale deal going to make traction among electorates as Congress tries to regain in ground ahead of the Lok Sabha polls?

"We are sensitive to all the problems pertaining to the state, and we will voice our demand for addressing these problems. At the moment, Rafale is the biggest scam which we need to make each and every people of the country. We have to expose BJP," Wasnik said.

Wasnik added, "UPA started the due process for procuring 126 fighter planes keeping the defence requirement in mind. Why then Modi reduced the number to 36? The nation wants to know."

Wasnik held a meeting with Congress workers here on Monday on stepping up the campaign in the state ahead of the Parliamentary polls.

After Harish Rawat launched the campaign in the state on "exposing BJP through Rafale deal" on Friday here, BJP promptly reacted, saying that it was Congress's frustration over its"failure to win back people's trust" in successive elections at the Centre and in the state.

"When our government has succeeded in clinching the deal, Congress is frustrated. It was in UPA's time that the decision was taken. But the UPA sat on it. Now, Congress has no right to point fingers at the Rafale deal because the party itself is tainted by scams like 2G," BJP spokesperson Rupam Goswami said on Monday.

Goswami said that Congress's attempt to create a ground for itself using Rafale deal will not succeed in the state. "It is still fresh in people's minds that three terms of Congress rule was rejected with huge mandate for BJP in 2016 because of its corruption. People of the state will not buy Congress argument on Rafale deal," Goswami said.