(LiveMint)
Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday took the battle to the opposition camp, challenging Congress president Rahul Gandhi to answer 15 questions before levelling corruption allegations on the purchase of the Rafale fighter aircraft from France.
Gandhi had earlier said that the deal signed by the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government smacked of corruption and crony capitalism. In fact, the Congress has finalized plans for a media blitzkrieg and ground-level campaign to corner the Modi government over the deal in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. The party had also raised the issue during the monsoon session of Parliament.
In response to Gandhi’s accusations, Jaitley first took to Facebook, accusing the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of compromising with national security by delaying the purchase of the multi-role fighter aircraft by more than a decade. He also accused Gandhi and the Congress party of running a false campaign against the NDA government on pricing and procedural irregularities.
