In his first public comments since the AgustaWestland issue broke out, PM Narendra Modi in poll-bound Tamil Nadu had dubbed the controversial deal a theft. (File photo)
Congress today brushed aside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on party president Sonia Gandhi on the AgustaWestland deal and instead asked him to first clarify on his educational qualifications, an issue that has kicked up a controversy.
"First of all, if the Prime Minister would be kind enough to clarify on his educational qualifications, the rest of the diatribe would then be answered," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.
Claiming that the prime minister seems to have "very selective yardsticks", he said, when it comes to the Congress, there is the "obvious vendetta and witch-hunt".
"But all these yardsticks do not seem to apply to Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vyapam. They do not seem to apply to the Rajasthan chief minister and the linkage with Lalit Modi. It does not seem to apply to the chief minister of Chhattisgarh and the involvement of that government in the PDS scam," he alleged.
The entire intent of the BJP is to try and create a climate of suspicion using "innuendoes, half-truths and downright lies," he further alleged.
In his first public comments since the AgustaWestland issue broke out, PM Modi in poll-bound Tamil Nadu yesterday had dubbed the controversial deal a "chori" (theft) and said that the guilty, howsoever big, would "not be spared".
Without naming Congress, PM Modi had also attacked the party which has launched a counter-attack on his government for dragging the name Sonia Gandhi, asking "if the court in Italy has said that people from the last government in India have taken money, why then are you troubling us here?"
At the AICC briefing, Mr Tewari was asked how he compared the RTI seeking information about the PM's degrees with an RTI query sometime back as regards the religion of the Congress president. Then it was said that it was a personal information and at that time the Congress party had justified the decision of the RTI.
"There is no comparison at all because you are really trying to compare apples and pears. Here, on an election affidavit, there are certain averments/statements which have been made by the prime minister," he said.