Rahul Gandhi frequently attacked PM Modi over the Rafale deal during his 2019 campaign. (File)
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a new attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government over the Rafale fighter aircraft deal, prompting Union Minister Piyush Goyal to hit back saying he is welcome to fight the 2024 general election on the issue.
In a tweet, Mr Gandhi quoted a news report titled "CAG drops audit of Rafale offset deal: Source" which claimed that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has submitted its performance audit on defence offset contracts to the government with no mention of any offset deals related to the purchase of Rafale aircraft.
"Money was stolen from the Indian exchequer in Rafale," Mr Gandhi alleged in his tweet without elaborating. The former Congress president also quoted Mahatma Gandhi, saying, "Truth is one, paths are many".
In a sharp retort, Piyush Goyal, the Railway Minister and a senior leader of the BJP, claimed that many in the Congress have confided that Mr Gandhi's obsession with Rafale is damaging the party.
"Many of Rahul Gandhi's Congress colleagues confide in private that Rahul's obsession with Rafale to wash off his father's sins is damaging the party. But if someone is wanting to self-destruct, who are we to complain? We invite him to fight the 2024 elections on Rafale," Mr Goyal tweeted.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the CAG report on Defence Offset Performance will be tabled in the upcoming session of Parliament and the contents will be known only after that.
Rahul Gandhi had launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2019 general elections, headlining his campaign with the "Chowkidar Chor Hai (The Watchman Is A Thief)" slogan that assailed the PM's "chowkidar" moniker for himself.
The Rafale aircraft deal was central to the Congress's poll campaign and was seen by many as contributing to the party's crushing defeat in the polls. The Congress won just 52 of the 542 seats in the Lok Sabha, an increase of just eight from 2014. The BJP, led by PM Modi, increased its tally by 21, reaching 303.
The BJP-led government had signed a Rs 59,000-crore deal in 2016 to buy 36 Rafale jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation after a nearly seven-year exercise to purchase 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force failed during the Congress regime.
The Congress had alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal, claiming that the government was purchasing each aircraft at a cost higher than what was finalised by the UPA government during negotiations for the 126 jets.
The government and aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation strongly refuted these allegations. In a verdict in 2018, the Supreme Court had given clean chit to the government on the deal.
India last month received its first batch of new multi-role fighter aircraft in two decades with the arrival of five Rafale jets.
(With inputs from PTI)