Firing fresh salvos at the Congress President Rahul Gandhi, the BJP today levelled a serious allegation of him being a ‘Defence Lobbyist’. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the source of documents cited by Rahul Gandhi in his press conference.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad: Rahul Gandhi is working as a lobbyist for competitive aircraft supplier companies. From where did he get the email of Airbus? Airbus itself is under clouds for deals during UPA regime pic.twitter.com/3PFpcM6nDJ
— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2019
Earlier today, citing an internal email purportedly sent by Airbus officials, Rahul Gandhi had claimed that the PM Modi worked as a middleman for Anil Ambani. The allegations levelled by Rahul Gandhi were predicated on a conjecture-filled report by the Indian Express claiming that the Reliance group head Anil Ambani met the French defence officials weeks before PM Modi’s meet. Rahul also dismissed the CAG report on the Rafale deal, calling it a ‘Chowkidar Auditor General report’.
The report in the Indian Express insinuated that Anil Ambani’s visit to the French Defence Minister on a short notice before the Prime Minister’s official visit exerted an influence on the outcome of the Rafale deal and that Anil Ambani was unduly benefitted by the deal.
Prasad contended how Rahul Gandhi was in possession of the internal emails of Airbus, which is itself facing an inquiry into the shady deals it got during the UPA regime and went on to claim that the Congress President is working as a defence lobbyist for competitor aircraft companies and trying to scuttle the Rafale deal, which is expected to immensely fortify the Indian Air Force.
Earlier too, several BJP leaders including Arun Jaitley had alleged that Rahul Gandhi was attacking the Rafale deal at the behest of Eurofighter, which was a contender in the MMRCA deal. There also allegations that Rahul Gandhi had met Eurofighter officials before he started his attack on the Rafale deal. Airbus is the majority shareholder of the consortium that manufactures the Eurofighter Typhoon jet.
