Rafale row: Congress looking for political mileage, says BJP

Senior BJP leaders Prakash Javadekar and Rajnath Singh attacked the Congress party for criticising the Rafale deal. Javadekar termed Congress president Rahul Gandhi a “directionless leader”, and said he and his party have no hope of returning to power, so they were trying to create a campaign on the basis of lies and speculations against the BJP government. Rahul has no facts and no evidence against the government regarding the Rafale deal, he said. “In the last 4.5 years, there was not a single allegation of corruption against any minister, so they are just leveling false allegations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rajnath also accused the Congress of trying to gain political mileage over the issue. “The Opposition does not have any issue left, so it is raking up the Rafale deal issue,” Rajnath told reporters after a meeting of the Central Zonal Council. “After clarifications from Hollande, there is no room for any doubt about the deal. The Congress is making it an issue to gain political mileage for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” he added.

— PTI