PTI photo

NEW DELHI: In a veiled attack on former party leaders Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie , BJP president Amit Shah on Friday said the defence minister’s statement on the Rafale deal should be given credence and not the comments of those “who did not get jobs”.

Shah said defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the base price of Rafale fighters negotiated by the Modi government was less than what was finalised by the UPA and the government had already clarified on the matter following the opposition’s charges. He was speaking after releasing a book, ‘Blueprint for an Economic Miracle’ authored by Pradeep Gupta, CMD of Axis My India.

“Will you give credence to the defence minister’s statement or those who did not get jobs?” Shah said when asked about allegations of scam in the Rafale deal levelled by Shourie and Sinha, both ministers in the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan.

BJP leaders have often hinted that relentless attacks by Shourie and Sinha on the Modi government over various issues were because they had been sidelined. Shah said the BJP would return to power in 2019 with a bigger mandate than 2014.

“People have already made up their mind. We have no doubt about it,” he said. He also rejected suggestions that some BJP’s allies were not happy with the party and said all NDA constituents were together.

He referred to NDA’s decision to field JD(U) leader Harivansh for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s post to make his point. For the first time in over four decades, the post had gone outside the main party in the government, he said.

