NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday continued with its offensive against the government over French media report of alleged payment to a "middleman" in the Rafale deal.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to take a swipe at PM Modi.
Alluding to PM Modi's message to students in "Pariksha pe charcha", Rahul posed three questions and asked the PM to answer them "without fear and nervousness".
The questions were also tweeted by his sister and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi.
The Congress, meanwhile, sought an independent probe into the matter.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala alleged corruption and a loss of Rs 21,075 crore to the state exchequer in the Rafale deal.
"How can a private individual and middleman be so powerful as to influence the decisions of the Modi government in India's biggest defence deal? Does it not require a thorough independent investigation?" he asked at a press conference.
"The government can no longer hide and it must answer to the people of India," Surjewala said.
The government has denied any wrongdoing and the presence of middlemen in the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from French firm Dassault Aviation, noting that it was a government-to-government deal.
Union minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad recently told a press conference that the allegations of corruption were "completely baseless" and suggested that a report in the French media about alleged financial irregularities in the deal may be due to "corporate rivalry" in that country.
Dassault Aviation has also rejected the fresh allegations of corruption in the Rafale deal on Thursday, saying no violations were reported in the frame of the contract.
French online journal "Mediapart" alleged that the jet manufacturer had paid nearly one million Euros to an Indian middleman.
(With inputs from PTI)