Minister of Finance and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley has resumed office and has taken charge of his cabinet once again. He is back not just in office but in form as he has come out and demolished the baseless claims posed by the opposition parties. His 15 questions to Rahul Gandhi shattered the myths spread by the Congress president and his cronies completely regarding the Rafale deal. Offence is the best defence, this is often said and it seems like Arun Jaitley has put this saying to heart. Next to fall in the line of attack of the BJP leader are ex-BJP leader cum cabinet ministers turned dissenters Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha. Both the former leaders from BJP had turned critical of PM Modi led central government and had recently went on to denounce the Rafale deal carried out by the NDA government. In an exclusive interview given to ANI, Arun Jaitley carried out a veiled attack on the two leaders.
Though Arun Jaitley refrained from taking their name there is no doubt that his attacks were directed towards Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie. Jaitley said that had these two leaders been with the NDA till date they would have been praising the Rafale deal instead of criticising it, their criticism according to Jaitley arose from the need to suit their new style of politics, one which they had to resort to after breakup with the BJP. Jaitley told ANI, “They haven’t looked at the file. You see, those NDA colleagues, if they were in NDA, would be speaking a different language. Our tragedy in the NDA has been, partially in the BJP, we have a fair share of career nationalists. They are nationalists and with us as long as it suits their career. And therefore, when they speak a contrarian language, I don’t attach much credibility to them.”
Arun Jaitley went on to add that he had been involved in the investigation process of the Bofors as a lawyer, and this entitled him to exclusive knowledge and understanding of the magnitude of the Bofors scam. He left nothing to chance as he went on to deride both the leaders and questioned their credibility in the national media without taking their names specifically. Excellent strategy by Mr. Jaitley as taking their names would have meant giving them more of the spotlight and media attention than what they deserve.
He went on to further demolish the accusations levied by the two leaders in which they had claimed that the Rafale deal was a scam larger in size than the Bofors scam which had shaken the foundation of the Rajiv Gandhi led Congress government in 1980s. Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie had made these claims in an interview where they appeared along with Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan. The two former cabinet ministers from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led BJP government had alleged that the Rafale deal finalized under PM Modi led BJP involved purchase of 36 Rafale jets at an extra price of Rs 1000 crore per aircraft compared to the deal finalized by the Congress led UPA. This too had been done without any extra facilities or technologies being added to it according to the two leaders who are friends turned foes of the BJP. The two had also alleged that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited had deliberately been eliminated from the Rafale deal by the NDA. Baseless and futile claims made by the two to gain public attention and to raise questions on BJP which has stopped giving them any significance ever since their break from the party.