New Delhi: Amid the ongoing military conflict between India and Pakistan, the Kerala Congress revived its allegations about the Rafale jet deal, accusing the BJP government of increasing costs agreed to by the UPA despite a 75 percent reduction in the fleet size.
In posts on social media platform X on Saturday and Friday, the Kerala unit claimed that had the UPA been in power, the fighter jets could have been purchased at a lower cost along with technology transfer.
“De-facto Defense Minister Anil Ambani negotiating Rafale deal with French President François Hollande. He reduced the fleet size by 75%, while paying three times the price. Such a masterstroke! The price was greatly ‘reduced’ from UPA’s ₹570 Cr to a modest ₹1,670 Cr per aircraft. Full paisa vasool!” the Kerala Congress said in an X post that is now unavailable.
The BJP’s Kerala unit hit back, alleging in its own X post that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi “didn’t want India to have Rafale Jets”.
The Congress responded saying, “We aimed at Pakistan but looks like someone else got hit instead.”
“Rahul Gandhi objected the mass corruption in the name of Rafale. Even BJP’s defense minister Manohar Parikkar was not involved in the negotiations done by Modi and his partner Anil Ambani. Finally Mr. Parikkar resigned unable to come to terms with scale of the scandal. If it was UPA Govt in power we could have had 126 jets at lesser cost that too with technology transfer. Do you want us to dig further and expose all those leaders involved in it? Let us know when you can stomach that,” the Kerala Congress added.
These social media posts by the Congress party’s Kerala unit were in stark contrast to the party high command’s repeated assertions since the 22 April Pahalgam attack that the party firmly stands with the government and the armed forces, and supports every measure taken against Pakistani aggression.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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