Seems our PM fled parliament: Rahul Gandhi takes dig at Modi over Rafale

Rahul tweeted, "So it seems our PM has fled Parliament & his own open book Rafale exam & is instead lecturing students at Lovely Univ. in Punjab, today. I request the students there to, respectfully, ask him to please answer the 4 questions posed to him by me, yesterday."

Attacking Modi, Rahul a day ago said the Prime Minister will face an open book exam on Rafale deal in the Parliament on Thursday.

He took to Twitter to post a list of questions for Modi to answer.

Taking a further dig, Rahul had mocked if the PM would face them himself or send a proxy in his place to answer the same.

In the tweet, Rahul had written: "Tomorrow, the PM faces an Open Book #RafaleDeal Exam in Parliament.

Here are the exam questions in advance:

Q1. Why 36 aircraft, instead of the 126 the IAF needed?

Q2. Why 1,600 Cr instead of 560 Cr per aircraft.

Q4. Why AA instead of HAL?

Will he show up? Or send a proxy?"

Holding a press conference, Rahul, reiterating "Chowkidar chor hai (watchman is thief), had said: "I would like to debate with the Prime Minister one-on-one on Rafale. Just give me 20 minutes to debate on Rafale and decide what is what. But he doesn't have the guts. He doesn't even meet you (media)."

On Wednesday, the Congress has brought out a tape which a Goa minister purportedly claims that former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar possesses files with all the of the India-France Rafale jet deal.

In the audio clip, which Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjwala had played before reporters earlier, Goa minister Vishwajit Rane purportedly speaks to ‘X’, saying chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who was Defence Minister at the time of the Rafale agreement, has all files in his bedroom and is holding the Modi government to ransom and not leaving his post despite illness.  

Though Rahul tried to play it in the Lok Sabha, the Speaker had asked the Congress chief to authenticate the tape before playing it after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley raised an objection.

Lok Sabha: Speaker denies Rahul to play Rafale audio clip

In a sharp attack against the Prime Minister, Rahul had said: "The country knows the truth. Narendra Modiji can't hide and the truth will remain as it is."

Image: Congress Twitter