Indian Defence Minister Nirmala  Sitharaman made a direct attack at Congress President Rahul Gandhi while debating the Rafale controversy in the Parliament.

Sitharaman expressed her displeasure at the language used by the Congress leaders to describe the prime minister in the Lower House of the parliament.

In an emotional outburst, Sitharaman asked the Opposition 'who gives you the right to call the Prime Minister 'Chor', just because you come from a khandan (family)'.

Sitharaman criticised  the Congress MPs for shouting her down in the parliament and calling her a 'liar'. Sitharaman said the honour of Prime Minister Modi, who comes from a lower section of the society, was at stake while objecting to the language used by Congress MPs.

Sitharaman said the Prime Minister had worked very hard to reach the position he was in and it was not appropriate to use such unparliamentary language to describe him.

Sitharaman's reactions came after Rahul Gandhi said that the defence minister had not answered key questions related to the Rafale deal in her long speech.

In his response to Sitharaman's speech, Congress president Rahul Gandhi once again raised the question as to who decided to give the contract for Rafale deal to Anil Ambani.

In his speech, Gandhi said he was told by the French President Emmanuel Macron that Anil Ambani's name was provided to me by the Prime Minister of India.