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Updated: Mar 07, 2019 15:22 IST

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday launched a counter-attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who demanded a “criminal investigation” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Rafale deal. Jaitley said Gandhi’s “facts were completely wrong” in Rafale deal.

“The government has repeatedly made its position clear. The Supreme Court has spoken on it. The petitioners are taking one more chance. The CAG has already analysed it. No dynast can claim that he is above the Supreme Court or the CAG and that their verdicts and findings don’t apply on them,” Jaitley said briefing the mediapersons in New Delhi.

“[In] today’s comment made by the Congress party and its president…the facts were completely wrong,” said the finance minister adding, “The Congress party has, in the last few days through statements of its senior leaders, corned itself in a difficult situation. They are getting high TRPs on Pakistan television. But there is revulsion as far as domestic opinion in India is concerned.”

“Politicians must understand people of India are more intelligent than us,” Jaitley said. He also dismissed the opposition’s questions over recent strike by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan’s Balakot. He said the fundamental issue is that India tried to strike at the root of terror through surgical strike and air strike. The IAF targeted a terror camp run by Jaish-e-Mohammed, which took responsibility for Pulwama attack, in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed last month.

Earlier, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at Gandhi for demanding a probe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Rafale deal. Responding to Gandhi’s fresh attack at PM Modi, Prasad said the Congress president is “playing into hands of Rafale competitors”.

“Totally condemn the blatant lies of Rahul Gandhi. He doesn’t believe the Indian Air Force. He doesn’t believe the Supreme Court, doesn’t believe the CAG [Comptroller and Auditor General]. Does he want to believe Pakistan? He is inadvertently or deliberately playing into hands of Rafale competitors,” news agency ANI quoted Prasad as saying minutes after Gandhi held a press conference in New Delhi.

Gandhi had, in the morning, demanded a probe against Modi in Rafale deal saying the prime minister “performed bypass surgery” on Rafale deal to benefit industrialist Anil Ambani, whose defence firm, Reliance Defence is an off-set partner of the Dassault Aviation. The French company is the manufacturer of the Rafale fighter jet.

Also Read | Who visited Pak, who invited ISI to Pathankot? Rahul Gandhi counters PM’s ‘poster boy’ jibe

“Why can’t there be a criminal investigation against him also,” said Gandhi referring to the Centre’s decision to probe the leak of official documents from the defence ministry. The government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the documents cited by lawyer Prashant Bhushan were stolen from the ministry. The court was hearing petitions seeking review of its 2018 judgment rejecting probe into Rafale deal.

Gandhi said that the same documents say that the Prime Minister’s Office conducted parallel negotiation with France in Rafale deal, weakening the position of the Indian Negotiating Team (INT). He said INT was tasked with negotiating the Rafale contract.

Also Read | ‘It’s clear, PM did bypass surgery’: Rahul Gandhi ups Rafale attack

The Congress president alleged that the prime minister “interfered” with the task of the INT to “give Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani.”

“If PM is not guilty, why doesn’t he himself agree for an investigation? Why did he refuse to form a Joint Parliamentary Committee,” Gandhi said at his press conference.

On Wednesday evening, Gandhi posted a tweet saying there is “enough evidence” to lodge case against PM Modi in Rafale deal. “There is now enough evidence to prosecute the PM in the #RafaleScam. The trail of corruption begins and ends with him. That crucial Rafale files incriminating him are now reported “stolen” by the Govt, is destruction of evidence and an obvious cover up,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Congress has been relentlessly trying to corner the government alleging irregularities in the Rafale deal signed between India and France in 2016. The Congress has alleged that the Rafale deal that was being negotiated during the UPA regime was scrapped by the Modi government to favour industrialist Anil Ambani.

Both the government and Anil Ambani’s firm have denied the allegations of the Congress. The government has maintained that the Rafale deal was signed in the “interest” of the country. The Supreme Court, in December last year, had ruled out “commercial favouritism” in Rafale deal while dismissing the petitions for independent probe into the Rs 59,000 crore contract.

Prasad , in his counter to Gandhi’s charge against PM Modi, referred to the CAG report on Rafale. The audit report tabled in Parliament during the Budget Session said that the Rafale deal signed by the Modi government was “cheaper” than the one that was being negotiated during the UPA regime.