Would Very Much Like to Debate With PM on Rafale, Just 20 Mins: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: After the debate in the Lok Sabha, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, addressing a press conference later in the evening, dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a one-to-one debate on the Rafale deal or any strategic issue.

Rahul alleged that the PM did not have the "guts to face him". In dramatic fashion, Rahul announced that he would take only 20 minutes.

Continuing with his attack, Rahul said, "Modi must answer whether Defence Ministry objected to the new deal and whose decision inflated the price of aircraft from Rs 526Cr to Rs 1600 Cr. And he must answer whether Airforce objected to this or not."

Rahul further alleged that it was PM Modi who was responsible for the change in the deal.

"Modi himself has taken the decision, but, he can't defend himself. He is being defended by FM or DM...Former DM Manohar Parrikar has publicly stated that he had no clue of the change in the deal. And now we find out that he has all the files of Rafale in his bedroom," said Rahul.

The BJP dubbed Rahul Gandhi's attack on PM Modi as an exercise in "desperation", claiming the Congress president could not make any point in Parliament during the Rafale debate and ended up "exposing" himself again at his press conference later.

"Gandhi's press conference was all about his desperation, lies and misrepresentation. He could not make any good point in Parliament and was exposed completely for his complete lack of understanding of issues. To make up for that he held a press conference and exposed himself again," he said.

Earlier in the day, calling the Rafale deal a ‘kaali dal’, Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi couldn’t speak on the issue even in a 90-minute “staged interview” with news agency ANI on Tuesday.

Rahul, in the Lok Sabha, sought to play an unverified recording in which a Goa minister purportedly implies that former defence minister and Goa CM Manohar Parrikar is in possession of damaging files on the fighter jet deal.

Rahul was criticised severely by senior BJP leader and leader of Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, who accused Congress president of "lying repeatedly". He challenged Gandhi to authenticate the tape before playing it and risk being expelled from the house if the tape is found to be fabricated.

Daring the PM to answer his questions in the House, Gandhi said Modi did not "have the guts to come to Parliament and confront questions on the Rafale deal”.