Rahul Gandhi: PMO directly involved in Rafale negotiations

New Delhi, Feb 8 The Prime Minister's Office was directly involved in negotiations with the French on the Rafale deal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was guilty in the scam, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Friday in a new assault on the legislature over the fighter jet agreement.

It is a straightforward scenario, Gandhi announced, refering to a report in The Hindu paper guaranteeing the Defense service raised solid complaints to "parallel discussions" directed by the PMO amid the dealings over the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal between India and France.

"I want to speak to every member of the armed forces of this nation... Here, it is totally evident that the prime minister has stolen Rs 30,000 crore of your cash, bypassed a process, and offered it to his friend Mr. Anil Ambani," Gandhi said at a press conference.

The government, just as Ambani, have strongly denied any wrongdoing in the fighter jet agreement with France.

Gandhi also read out from a report, purportedly from the Defence ministry, published in the newspaper.

"Presently, it is completely clear that the service itself has stated, and I will peruse it to you, 'It is in this way certain that the parallel discourses by the PMO has debilitated the exchange of the MOD and the Indian Negotiating Team. We may exhort PMO that any officers who are not part of the Negotiation Team may cease from having parallel conferences with the officer of the French government'," Gandhi said.

The Congress president also repeated his interest for a joint parliamentary advisory group to test the Rafale bargain.

The administration can use the law against everybody, including his brother-in-law Robert Vadra and former Union Finance minister P Chidambaram, yet should answer questions on the Rafale matter, he said.

"Whatever request you need to do, you do it. You execute the law. Robert Vadra, P Chidambaram - you implement the law on everybody. Forget about it. In any case, you additionally give replies on the Rafale matter," he said.

He was responding to a question on the Enforcement Directorate interrogating Vadra in a money laundering case and the administration's approval to arraign Chidambaram in the INX MEDIA case.

On Thursday, the PM also hit back at the Congress over the Rafale issue, asserting that the Congress did not need the Indian Air Force to be strong.

Prior in the day,Gandhi had challenged Modi to a five minute face-to-face debate on issues such as the controversial jet deal and national security.