Congress President Rahul Gandhi said India has had “four revolving” defence ministers since 2014 and alleged that it gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi “space to personally re-negotiate” the Rafale deal with France.

Gandhi's comments come amid a war of words between the BJP and the Congress on the Rafale jet deal, said a PTI report.

“Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French,” Gandhi said on Twitter.

“India has had 4 ‘RAFALE Mantris’. But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he won't speak!” the Congress chief said and tagged an Amul advertisement that had a humorous take on the Rafale issue with a ‘Pass or Rafail’ tagline.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley was twice defence minister, once after the government was formed in 2014 and then after Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister of Goa. Sitharaman became defence minister after Jaitley’s second stint.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader KV Thomas on Tuesday demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the Rafale fighter jet deal. Participating in a debate on Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha, Thomas questioned the “secrecy” behind not revealing the cost.

“The prime minister promised clean and transparent governance. It (the deal) will come under the (scrutiny) of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The cost will also be revealed when it comes before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC),” Thomas said.

People have the right to know about the cost, Thomas said. When asked later, Thomas said this was his personal demand.