Despite the taint of the ongoing controversy over the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets by the Narendra Modi government, even the aircraft's critics concede that its multi-role capabilities are second to none.
So it is no surprise that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, who has effectively turned opposition to the Rafale deal into a crusade against corruption, alluded to the aircraft's capabilities, albeit in a snide manner!
In a tweet on Friday morning, Gandhi noted, “Globalised corruption. This #Rafale aircraft really does fly far and fast! It's also going to drop some big bunker buster bombs in the next couple of weeks.
Modi Ji please tell Anil, there is a big problem in France.”
To give context to his tweet, Gandhi uploaded a link to a report in a major newspaper that claimed that just before the 2016 Republic Day celebrations, industrialist Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment had agreed to produce a film with a company owned by the girlfriend of then French president Francois Hollande. Hollande, who was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in 2016, signed an MoU on the Rafale purchase during that visit.
Gandhi's tweet comes towards the end of a week that saw both the Congress and BJP level allegations at each other on the Rafale deal.
While the Congress had claimed that Modi had “directly” purchased the Rafale jets, without following mandatory procedures, with the aim of benefiting Ambani, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday put up a Facebook post alleging that the Congress had endangered national security by not acting on the Indian Air Force's requirement for 126 fighters for a decade.
Gandhi's tweet promising “big bunker busters” shows that the Congress is unlikely to go slow in raising corruption allegations in the Rafale deal. Interestingly, in addition to targeting Modi directly, Gandhi and the Congress have also repeatedly referred to Ambani.