Nirmala Sitharaman is not Defence Minister but PM's spokesperson: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi, Jan 7 (IBNS): Hitting out at the Defence Minister over Rafale once again on Monday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi has termed Nirmala Sitharaman as a "spokesperson of Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
After an exchange of Twitter barbs a day ago, Rahul on Monday said: "She is not the Defence Minister. She is the spokesperson of the ministry..she is the spokesperson of Prime Minister Narendra Modi."
Reiterating his questions on Rafale, the Congress chief attacked Modi saying, "The Prime Minister can't even attend the parliament."
Rahul attacks Sitharaman on Twitter:
Rahul Gandhi on Sunday quoted a media report and challenged the Minister to place all documents related to the government orders in the Parliament or resign from her position.
He tweeted: " When you tell one lie, you need to keep spinning out more lies, to cover up the first one. In her eagerness to defend the PM's Rafale lie, the RM lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 Lakh crore of Govt orders to HAL.Or resign."
Rahul was attempting to corner the minister of over a report published in Indian newspaper The Times of India which said India’s leading defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), grappling with stressed finances, is keenly awaiting formalisation of orders adding up to Rs 1 lakh crore mentioned by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the discussion on the Rafale fighter deal in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The paper said though the process of ordering has been started but no actual order was placed so far.
Another Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala also targeted Nirmala Sitharaman and tweeted: "The Lying Defence Minister’s Lies Gets Exposed!
"Def Min claimed that procurement orders worth ₹1 Lakh Cr provided to HAL! HAL says Not a SINGLE PAISA has come, as Not a SINGLE ORDER has been signed! For the first time,HAL forced to take a loan of ₹1000 Cr to pay salaries!."
Sitharaman reacts:
The Minister asked Gandhi to read the entire news report before making any comment on the issue.
"Please read the complete report in â¦@timesofindiaâ© to which you ( â¦@RahulGandhiâ© )are referring: “However, as the LS record shows, Sitharaman did not claim the orders were signed, saying they were in the works.” | India News - Times of India," she tweeted.
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