Rahul Gandhi’s fresh salvo on Rafale; to decide on alliances

Hours after presiding over the first reconstituted Working Committee, Congress President Rahul Gandhi reiterated his allegations related to the Rafael deal. The allegations made by him had prompted the BJP to declare that a breach of privilege motion would be initiated against the Congress President. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had produced, but not tabled, a copy of the agreement between the two Governments signed in 2008.

On Sunday, Rahul Gandhi, who was authorised by the CWC to decide on poll alliances in states, tweeted, “Our Defence Minister said she would, but now she won’t. She flip flops between “it’s-not-a-secret” & “it’s-a-BIG-secret”. The PM squirms when asked about the price of RAFALE and refuses to look me in the eye. Sure smells like a scam.”

While the Parliament re-convenes tomorrow, the no-confidence motion against the Government is slated to be taken up in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. More fireworks on the Rafale deal can be expected, it would seem.

• The culture of constant self-praise and jumlas by the Modi Government needs to be rejected by the country, said former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in his address.
• The former PM also ridiculed the Prime Minister’s oft-repeated ‘ jumla’ to double farm income by 2022. For that to happen, said Dr Singh, Agriculture needed to grow by 14%. The growth is far less than that.
• The tone and tenor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the debate on no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha shows the despair of the BJP, said former Congress President Sonia Gandhi. The countdown for the end of the Modi Government had started, she said.
• The culture of hate and fear that prevail in the country will be resisted by the Congress, she declared.

Ashok Gehlot, briefing the media after the four-hour-long meeting, confirmed that the Congress President would decide on alliances with other parties. The choice of pre-poll or post-poll alliance had also been left to him. While 35 to 40 members spoke at the meeting, Gehlot said, the thrust was to prepare the party for the next election.

States going to the polls and the North-East came were also discussed. The Congress President, he informed, said in his address that the party must work for the poor, the farmers, the Dalits and the Adivasis and women and become the voice of India. Organisationally, the party needed to expand its base, identify people who had not voted for the party so that the party could reach out to them and regain their trust.

Use of Government machinery to win the last general election by the BJP also came in for discussion.