Rahul Gandhi, Arun Jaitley spar over Rafale jet pricing

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday sparred over the pricing of Rafale fighter jets.

While Rahul claimed that the Union finance minister had himself corroborated the figure of Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft that was being quoted by the Congress, Jaitley responded to the attack with a dig at the Congress chief.

Addressing a press conference, Rahul Gandhi played out a part of Jaitley's speech in Lok Sabha today and said "Arun Jaitley himself told Parliament that size of Rafale deal is Rs 58,000 crore which works out to Rs 1,600 crore per aircraft."



Taking a dig at Jaitley's claims of getting the fighter jets at reduced price, Rahul said, "If prices of Rafale deal was brought down as claimed by Jaitley why did we not buy 126 aircraft or more?"

Jaitley responded to the Congress attack with a dig at Rahul.

“How much does he know? When will be know?”, said Jaitley in a tweet.



"Even a fool will not compare prices of a simple flyaway aircraft with a weaponised Jet. Even in the offer made to the UPA government there were two different prices one of the flyaway aircraft and the offer of the weaponised aircraft. Compare two unequals and call it a ‘scam’," the Union finance minister said.



Continuing with his attack over the deal, Rahul accused Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar of "effectively blackmailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

Rahul claimed the purported Parrikar tape on Rafale was authentic and warned there could be other tapes also.

Claiming that Rafale was a good aircraft, Rahul said "what we are saying is that the PM has changed the deal to benefit Anil Ambani."

Rahul dared PM Modi for a 20-minute one-on-one debate on Rafale aircreaft or any other strategic issue.

The Congress president threw the challenge when he was asked about the remarks made by Jaitley during the debate in Lok Sabha.

"It is a tragedy that the grand old party which was headed by the legends in the past is now headed by a gentleman who doesn't have basic understanding of combat aircraft," Jaitley had said.