Rafale-deal: Slamming RaGa's 'poor understanding', Arun Jaitley asks 15 questions
In his first video interview after resuming charge as Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley has slammed Congress and Rahul Gandhi for their 'factually false' allegations about the Rafale deal. Jaitley also posted 15 questions for Gandhi on social media, asking him to answer them. He said the allegations show how little Gandhi and his party understood key matters. Here's what he said.
Jaitley claims NDA got a cheaper deal than UPA
Jaitley likened the allegations to kindergarten debate and said, "'Well, I was paying 500 something and you've paid 1600 something'. That's the argument being given." He, further, claimed NDA got a cheaper deal. "What was negotiated from 2015 to 2016 and finally executed in 2016, with escalations and currency variations, the basic aircraft price turns out to be 9% cheaper," he said.
Why did Congress delay it for 10 years, asks Jaitley
Furthering his attack on Congress, Jaitley asked why the deal was delayed for ten years. About allegations of crony capitalism, Jaitley said, "This is a government to government arrangement. Offset has nothing to do with this contract." He added 36 fully-loaded aircrafts will be purchased from France. "The combat ability of our forces had to be increased; we live in troubled zone," he added.
Gandhi is himself unsure about prices, wrote Jaitley
In a long Facebook post, Jaitley wrote Gandhi was unsure of facts himself. He said Gandhi quoted Rs. 700 crore price in Delhi and Karnataka, brought it down to Rs. 520 crore in the Parliament, and then in Jaipur mentioned Rs. 520 crore and Rs. 540 crore in the same speech. "Truth has only one version, falsehood has many," he wrote.
Jaitley even slammed Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha
But former BJP minister Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie had also claimed NDA would pay Rs. 1,000 crore more per plane. On this, Jaitley said they were 'career nationalists' and he didn't give much credibility to them.
