'Rafales have landed but Rahul Gandhi yet to take off': Rajnath Singh slams Congress and Gandhi family

Kevadia, Sept 2: Taking a jibe at Congress and Gandhi family, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday slammed Rahul Gandhi saying that while Rafale had landed in India Rahul Gandhi is yet to take off. This statement came while the Minister addressed the inaugural session of the three-day Gujarat state executive in Kevadia, Narmada.

 

 

Singh targeted the Congress leadership over defence equipment procurement and said, "Congress and Rahul Gandhi made Rafale an issue. These aircraft have now landed in India while Rahul Gandhi is yet to take off." It should be noted that Congress created huge controversy when the government had decided to purchase of 36 multirole fighter aircraft for a price estimated at €7.8 billion (approx. Rs 60,000 crore) from France's Dassault Aviation in 2016.

 

 

Since the deal was signed in 2016, the Congress party had repeatedly targeted the Narendra Modi government for alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. However, in 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the Rafale deal, stating that no irregularities or corruption have been found.

 

Further, Singh, in his address here, "Opposing for sake of opposition led to interrupted Parliament session. We should devote time and energy to dealing with opposition to a limited extent if you do it in excess, the result will be Rahul Gandhi."

 

The Union Minister in his address said that Congress indulged in self-promotion and forgot about the welfare of people and is misusing Mahatma Gandhi's surname. "Congress used Gandhi surname to the maximum extent. So much so that they even adopted Gandhi as their own surname. But they forgot to work on tasks Mahatma Gandhi left for them. They indulged in prospering themselves and Congress. In fact, they institutionalised corruption," said Singh.

 

 

Comparing the transparent and accountable tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with that of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, "earlier there were complaints about 16 paise out of 100 paise reaching the beneficiaries. Now the money goes directly in the account of beneficiaries through DBT."

 

While calling BJP a machine that wins the trust of people in elections he said, "not just Indians but political analysts abroad too are keenly watching the developments in the poll-bound states of UP and Gujarat." While listing failures of Congress in removing poverty, Singh cited the example of the country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

 

"Take an example of farmers. The country's first Prime Minister used to say that everything can wait but not agriculture. Despite that Congress remained ignorant of the problems of small scale farmers. Deendayal Ji in 60s used to say that every field should get water and every hand should get work," said Singh. He slammed Congress for not heeding to a few of its leaders' vision and ignoring plights of 'Kisan and jawan' and praised the Modi government for ensuring one rank one pension.

 

 

Speaking on security preparedness, the Defence Minister said that in past seven years country hasn't witnessed any big terrorist strike. "We didn't let terrorists succeed. Today even terrorists know that they aren't even secure in their safe houses. One incident took place in Uri and our army took revenge by entering their houses across borders in Balakot," said Singh while assuring that the country is prepared to deal with those who wish to create terror in the country.

 

The Union Minister also spoke of sacrifices made by the BJP to ensure their commitment to the construction of Ayodhya's Ram Janmbhoomi Temple. "There are many organisations affiliated to BJP that too have sacrificed a lot. In fact, we too have sacrificed our state government's for this cause," he pointed out. The minister also gave credit to the BJP government for the abrogation of 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. "We had ideological commitment towards full integration of the Jammu and Kashmir," said Singh.

 

Present at the state executive meet were CM Vijay Rupani, deputy CM Nitin Patel, State chief BJP CR Patil along with Union minister and Gujarat in-charge Bhupendra Yadav, union minister Parshottam Rupala, Darshana Jardosh, Devusinh Chauhan and MPs and MLAs along with other state executive members.