Rafale deal: Rahul Gandhi says joint venture of Mr 56's friend' got contracts of $20 billion

Congress president Rahul Gandhi today took a fresh jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, alleging that the joint venture of "Mr 56's friend" received "USD 20 billion actual benefits" through offset contracts in the deal.

The Congress has launched an offensive on the prime minister and his government over the Rafale deal, alleging favouritism in granting the offset contract to Reliance Defence, in violation of the rules and has accused Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" to the nation on the issue.

Taking to Twitter, Gandhi said he forgot to mention earlier about the offset contracts of USD 16 billion to the private entity's joint venture, and said the actual benefit is of USD 20 billion, equivalent to Rs 1,30,000 crore.

"Dear Trolls, I apologize for my earlier tweet in which I stated Mr 56's friend's JV, received 4 Billion US$'s of 'off set' contracts.

"I forgot to add the 16 Billion US$ RAFALE lifecycle contract. 20 BILLION US$, is the actual benefit. So Sorry!!," he tweeted, using the hashtag "130000 CroreRafaleScam".

The Congress has also given a notice for breach of privilege in Lok Sabha against the prime minister and the defence minister on the Rafale issue.