Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of finance & Corporate Affairs is back in office. He resumed his duties last week on Thursday. He was recovering from a kidney transplant surgery, which kept him out of his office for three months.

Arun Jaitley has condemned Rahul Gandhi and Congress party in a series of tweets today. He was critical of Congress Party on account of the ongoing controversy in the Rafale deal.

He tweeted, “Congress Party’s false campaign launched on Rafale aircraft deal based on peddled untruth has been casting a cloud on the Inter-Governmental agreement & seriously compromising national security.”

Jaitley further slammed Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Rafale pricing. The Union Minister said, “Rahul Gandhi quoted a price of Rs.700 Cr per aircraft in Delhi and Karnataka in April and May this year. In Parliament, he reduced it to Rs.520 Cr per aircraft, in Raipur he increased it to Rs.540 Cr”

Jaitley also questioned the understanding of Congress President Rahul Gandhi on this sensitive matter. He even challenged Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party to respond to this issue immediately.

He added that the Congress’ statements on the Rafale pricing are misleading and false.

Jaitley also posed 15 questions on his Facebook blog to Rahul Gandhi. He said that the NDA government’s deal with France for purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in April, 2015 had better terms than one by the UPA government in 2007.

Jaitley also posted that before the deal was executed, the Cabinet Committee on Security had approved the transaction.

Rahul Gandhi Hits Back

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has responded in a tweet to Jaitley. He suggested setting up a joint Parliamentary committee to address this issue.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Mr Jaitley, thanks for bringing the nation’s attention back to the GREAT #RAFALE ROBBERY! How about a Joint Parliamentary Committee to sort it out?
Problem is, your Supreme Leader is protecting his friend, so this may be inconvenient. Do check & revert in 24 hrs. We’re waiting!”

Senior Congress leaders want to rake up the issue and are demanding probe into the RAFALE deal.

Congress has accused the government of helping Anil Ambani led Reliance to bag the offset contracts for the aircraft by overlooking the experienced public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Jaitley responded to Rahul Gandhi’s demand for a joint Parliamentary committee by asking him to respond to his 15 questions. Here is the latest tweet from the Union Minister of Finance.