The Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of lying about procurement orders worth INR₹ 1 lakh crore for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Congress senior leader Randeep Surjewala said, HAL has not received a single order and had to take a loan to pay the salaries of its employees.
Rahul Gandhi said that the defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman must place documents of the government orders before parliament or resign.
These new allegations came after a media report in The Times of India claiming that HAL was grappling with low finances, and had been forced to borrow money to pay its employees salaries. The report also claimed that the process of ordering had started, but no actual orders have been placed yet.
Rahul Gandhi 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. pic.twitter.com/dYafyklH9o
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 6, 2019
All this amidst the existing Congress allegations that the BJP-led government of India favoured Anil Ambani's defence firm in the offset contract with Rafale jet manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
The Defence minister of India and Mr. Ambani both denied allegations of favoritism.
(The Pigeon Express Opinion - This is the election year, so it is natural for the Congress party to target individual ministers of the Modi cabinet. The targeting has been the most volatile now than ever before in Modi's 4 & 1/2 year term as PM.
The atmosphere that the Congress party has created over Rafale procurement makes it look like Modi's fault. If the BJP doesn't have anything to hide, and to save its face it needs to give in for a JPC. This is the only way out for the saffron party to shun the Congress.
However coming back to newer allegations revealed above, it's sad that a globally recognized defence manufacture has no money or orders. It just makes the rafale allegations stronger and proves that the government is favouring private players.)