The Congress President Rahul Gandhi embarrassed himself yet again on Tuesday. He resorted to half-truths, and lies to attack PM Modi over the Rafale deal. Rahul Gandhi cited a leaked email claiming that Anil Ambani had prior information of the Rafale deal. He claimed that Anil Ambani was aware of the MoU before India and France signed it. The Gandhi scion also accused PM Modi of acting as a ‘middlemen’.
Rahul said: “Defence Minister says he doesn’t know about the new deal, whereas Anil Ambani is sitting in the French Defence Minister’s office saying PM will sign an MoU with him involved. This is the breach of the Official Secrets Act.” The Congress chief also added, “He has given these secrets to Anil Ambani, who knew about the biggest defence deal in the world 10 days before. This itself is criminal. This itself will put the Prime Minister in jail.”
The source and base of all his bizarre accusations was the leaked e-mail. Sharing the document, Congress leader Kapil Sibal tweeted, “It seems Airbus, French Government, Anil Ambani all knew that the PM will sign an MOU on his visit to France between 9th and 11th April, 2015.”
It seems Airbus , French Government , Anil Ambani all knew that the PM will sign an MOU on his visit to France between 9th and 11th April , 2015 .
This Government’s lies exposed. pic.twitter.com/rJGNNycaRH
— Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) February 12, 2019
A Reliance Defence spokesperson responded to Rahul Gandhi’s baseless allegations. The spokesperson said that the leaked email was about the Airbus Helicopter and had no connection with the fighter jet contract.
“Purported email being referred by the Congress party is regarding the discussion between Airbus and Reliance Defence regarding Civil & Defence Helicopter Programs under ‘Make in India'” Reliance Defence Spokesperson said.
The spokesperson further said, “It is already in public domain that Airbus Helicopter has partnered with Mahindra for the Military Helicopter Program. The MoU for Rafale aircraft was signed between France and India on 25 January 2016 and not in April 2015. From the above, it is evident that the facts are being deliberately twisted and reality being ignored.”
“Facts being deliberately twisted and reality being ignored”, well that’s all that Rahul Gandhi and his coterie are doing in order to prove that the Rafael deal is a huge scam.
With the commencement of election season also begins the cavalcade of obfuscating information. The Congress has achieved mastery in this area. In the run up to the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress ecosystem created false narratives against Vajpayee during his regime end. There is a huge similarity between the narrative of fake “Kargil coffin scam” and the ongoing attempt of the opposition to project the Rafale deal as a scam. The Congress milked extensive electoral benefit from the narrative of fake coffin scam and ahead of 2019 general elections, they are trying to employ their tried and tested formula again. The Congress party, from the past few months, has been valiantly trying to project Rafale deal as a scam, but so far they have suffered abject failure mainly because of social media. In 2004, social media had no relevance in elections but now, before winning the ground battle one needs to win the battle of narrative on internet. People are now consuming more and more information through the internet as compared to any other medium of information.
For more details: A Twitter thread exposes the nefarious narrative of media