"Lies Peddled By Rahul Gandhi": BJP's 10-Point Rebuttal On Rafale

The BJP listed Rahul Gandhi's claims on the matter, and offered a fact-check.

The BJP today amped up its Twitter blitz on the Congress with a list of what it said were "lies peddled" by party chief Rahul Gandhi. All concerned Rafale, which occupied headlines yesterday after a report by The Hinducited an internal note of the defence ministry that expressed strong reservations about the "parallel negotiations" conducted by officials of the Prime Minister's Office.

The "head's up" came in the morning.

Good Morning, folks.

While you are starting a new day of honesty and hard work, #LiarRahulGandhi is preparing to peddle more lies

It's difficult to track all his lies, but we've tried to track major lies peddled by him on #Rafale. A heads up before his today's quota!

— BJP (@BJP4India) February 9, 2019

The government had pointed out yesterday that the note cited by The Hindu also contained a handwritten response from then defence minister Manohar Parrikar, which said the PMO was monitoring the progress of the deal -- a detail not included in the news report.

But the Congress argued that "negotiating directly" with the French government is not 'supervision", but interference. Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi pointed out that the involvement of the PM's Office was not included in the government's submission in the Supreme Court.

Later, he tweeted: "The Chowkidar has concealed facts on the Rafale issue from the Supreme Court. The nation has now seen the evidence. The people's court will not spare him."

Hence, the Supreme Court judgment on Rafale, that concluded that the Supreme Court judgment -- which said there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the multi-billion dollar Rafale deal for 36 fighter jets -- was also questionable, he said.

The BJP listed Mr Gandhi's claims on the matter, and offered a fact-check.

Lie No.1: #LiarRahul tried to twist some report in a French media house to say making Reliance an offsets partner was a tradeoff for Dassault to get the deal with India.

Fact: Both Supreme Court & Dassault CEO said Indian govt had nothing to do with choosing of offsets partners. pic.twitter.com/C4vlTEFUAT

— BJP (@BJP4India) February 9, 2019

Lie No.2: #LiarRahul tried to create false impression that SC has found grave irregularities with the deal. Indulged in third grade level propaganda on a sub judice matter.

Fact: The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions filed by Congress proxies and held govt has done no wrong. pic.twitter.com/o70qaoyGEP

— BJP (@BJP4India) February 9, 2019

The ten tweets of the BJP included news tweets, documents and video clips about the Rs 59,000 crore deal, which the Congress says is overpriced and signed to benefit the rookie defence firm of Anil Ambani.

Disclaimer: NDTV has been sued for 10,000 crores by Anil Ambani's Reliance Group for its coverage of the Rafale deal