Rahul Gandhi dares PM Narendra Modi to ‘stop hiding’ and face Parliament on Rafale

NEW DELHI: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold the Winter Session of Parliament and answer questions related to the Rafale deal.

“The truth does not go away because you hide from it. Modi ji, stop hiding and open the Parliament so the truth of what you did on Rafale can be heard by the nation,(sic)” he tweeted.

He has been repeatedly attacking the government over the Rafale deal with France asking why the contract was awarded to a company with “no defence experience”.

The Congress has alleged that the cost of each aircraft as per the deal is much more than what its government had finalised with France in 2012.

Repeatedly accusing the Modi government of sabotaging the Winter Session, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had also recently hit out at the Prime Minister claiming that he “lacks the courage to face Parliament.”

However, the BJP has defended itself saying that this is not for the first time that the session is delayed and this has happened in the past by the UPA government too.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad attacked Rahul and Congress over this “sudden dedication towards Parliament.” He said: “I’m surprised with the dedication that the Congress is showing towards Parliament. We want to ask Congress that for how long does Rahul Gandhi even attend the session.”

“Whenever there was a discussion on demonetisation and the moment Congress realised we are showing facts which made Congress uncomfortable, they walked out of Parliament,” Ravi Shankar added.

The winter session is traditionally convened in the third week of November and lasts till the third week of December.