Congress allegations on Rafale complete falsehood: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi, Aug 29 : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday termed the Congress allegations on the Rafale deal as "complete falsehood" and said the basic aircraft price at which the fighter jets had been bought was 9 per cent cheaper than that negotiated by the UPA government.
In a blogpost, Jaitley accused the Congress of seriously compromising national security by delaying the Rafale deal by over a decade and alleged that it was raising issues to "further delay defence procurement so that India's defence preparedness further suffers".
He said the Congress had launched a "false campaign" that the Modi government had paid a higher price for the fighter jets, an industrialist had been favoured and the interests of the public sector were compromised.
"Each one of the above issues is based on complete falsehood. It is expected from national political parties and its responsible leaders to keep themselves informed of the basic facts before they enter a public discourse on defence transactions," Jaitley said.
"Every fact that Gandhi and the Congress has spoken on pricing and procedure are completely false," he said.
"The UPA was a government which suffered from a decision-making paralysis. Do you agree that the delay of over one decade was only on account of the incompetence and indecisiveness of the UPA Government?
"Did this delay seriously compromise national security? Is not the medium multi-role combat aircraft required by our forces to identify and strike at targets particularly when two of our neighbours have already enhanced their strength in this area?
"Was this delay and eventual abatement of the purchase by the UPA based on collateral considerations as had been witnessed in earlier transactions such as the purchase of the 155 mm Bofors gun?" Jaitley questioned.
The Minister said the Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi were unaware of the Rafale deal facts.
"How is it that Gandhi quoted a price of Rs 700 crore per aircraft in Delhi and Karnataka in April and May? In Parliament, he reduced it to Rs 520 crore per aircraft, in Raipur he increased it to Rs 540 crore, in Jaipur he used Rs 520 crore and Rs 540 crore in the same speech," he said.
"Truth has only one version, falsehood has many. Are these allegations being made without any familiarity with the facts of the Rafale purchase?" he asked.
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World No. 1 Chakravarthy achieves career-best rating in ICC T20I bowler rankings
Dubai (PTI): India spinner Varun Chakravarthy on Wednesday consolidated his position at the top of the ICC Men's T20I Bowler Rankings, reaching a career-best rating following a stellar show in the ongoing T20 series against South Africa.
The 34-year-old Chakravarthy earned a new best rating of 818 points on the back of his third consecutive two-wicket haul in five-game home series.
The right-armer has six wickets across the first three matches of the series, with his spell of 2/11 from four economical overs in the most recent contest in Dharamsala proving pivotal in India's clinical seven-wicket triumph.
Chakravarthy (818 rating points) now holds a 119-point advantage over his closest rival in New Zealand seamer Jacob Duffy (699) in second-place, while also moveing inside the top 10 for the best rating of all-time for T20I bowlers.
Left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh also improved four places to 16th overall on the rankings for T20I bowlers on the back of his Player of the Match heroics against the Proteas in the third game.
For South Africa, Marco Jansen (up 14 spots to 25th), Lungi Ngidi (up 11 rungs to 44th) and Ottneil Baartman also improved, reaching 68th from outside the top 100.
Among T20I batters, India now boast two players inside the top five on the rankings, with Tilak Varma gaining two spots to move to fourth overall after a trio of decent innings against South Africa.
Teammate Abhishek Sharma maintains a decent buffer at the top, while South Africa duo Aiden Markram (up eight places to 29th) and Quinton de Kock (up 14 spots to 43rd) made good ground following some decent recent efforts.
Pakistan's Saim Ayub has a narrow lead at the top of the rankings for T20I all-rounders despite not playing any international matches across the last week, with India's Shivam Dube the big mover on this list as he improves two places to 16th.
