New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi does not want to let this one go. Latching onto a news report which claimed Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is yet to secure orders worth Rs 1 lakh crore – contrary to the claim made by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha — Gandhi asked her to quit if she could not prove otherwise.
Momentarily taken aback, hours after Gandhi made the charge, Sitharaman released some papers to show that HAL has indeed signed contracts of Rs 26,570 crore; also, there were additional orders worth Rs 73,000 crore in the pipeline. ‘‘Will @rahulgandhi apologise to the country on the floor of the house and resign,” her office tweeted, putting out details of the orders awarded to the HAL and the tenders in pipeline.
Charging that Gandhi had jumped the gun, the Union Minister said the Congress party president should ‘‘start from ABC’’ and “read the full report” before commenting on it. During the discussion on Rafale in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman had said the government has given several contracts to HAL. “The Congress is shedding crocodile tears for HAL. The Congress government gave 53 waivers to HAL… We have given contracts worth Rs. 1 lakh crore,” the Defence Minister had asserted.
The explanation put out by the Defence Minister on Sunday, however, failed to allay the doubts and the Congress and party is expected to demand documentary evidence of the claims made about contracts awarded to HAL. Keeping up the tempo, party spokesperson Manish Tewari said the Congress will press for her resignation in case she fails to substantiate her claim.
Earlier, quoting from the news report, Gandhi had 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 Raksha Mantri lied to Parliament. Tomorrow, RM must place before Parliament documents showing 1 lakh crore of government orders to HAL.”
There ought to be more fireworks in the House on Monday in view of the claim and counter-claim. Sources said the minister is likely to stake the line that these orders were not signed but were in the works. Tewari alleged that the problem with the BJP-led NDA government is that whenever they are confronted with facts, they try and resort to hair splitting. “Chicanery rather than an assertion of the truth has been the sine qua non of this government. Gandhi had earlier pointed out that it is indeed strange that if Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has the funds, why it is borrowing to pay the salaries.
