Prime Minister says country can see through the conspiracy hatched to weaken defence sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Rahul Gandhi’s ‘childishness’ had been exposed in the manner in which he was raking up the Rafale deal and asserted that the Congress leader was misleading the country on defence procurement.

“You must have seen how the country’s first woman Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman elucidated a critical subject like defence and her inner truth in Parliament yesterday using her skill and competence,” Mr. Modi said at a public rally here. “I congratulate Nirmalaji for the accomplishment,” he added.

“The Defence Minister has exposed the intentions of those who misled the country, played politics with national security and used Parliament for their own entertainment, besides their childishness, before the country,” Mr. Modi said.

Sustaining his attack on the Congress over defence procurement, Mr. Modi said: “Now, the country can see through how a conspiracy was hatched to weaken our defence sector between 2004 and 2014 and figure out all finer points of the plot. When our government is bringing the defence personnel from the clutches of the conspirators, it is stinging them like thorns.”

The Prime Minister also returned the fire on ‘chowkidar chor hai’ barb of the Congress president saying, “at any cost they want to get rid of the ‘chowkidar’ from their path. Anywhere, ‘choron ki jamat’ [troop of thieves] in a society or house or in an apartment tries to remove the security guard first.

‘Secret is out’

“The truth is now stinging them because their secret is getting exposed. Recently, media reported about a middleman in helicopter purchase... Christian Michel, who had been extradited from abroad. One of his letters has come out in public domain. It reveals that he had contacts with top leadership of Congress and ministers,” Mr. Modi said.

“He had access to the Prime Minister’s Office. He used to have knowledge of every file movement in the PMO. Perhaps, the middlemen had more information than the Prime Minister used to have. Moreover, proceedings of Cabinet Committee on Security, which takes crucial decisions on national security and procurement of weapons, were being supplied to the middlemen. He used to send the information overseas and sell details of decisions taken by Ministers outside,” alleged the PM.

“It cannot be understood if Congress had run a government or managed durbar [court] of Michel mama [uncle]. I am now making it clear that that those who had a role in safeguarding interests of middlemen instead of the country would be taken to task.

“My government is constantly taking big and important decisions. Should we not rectify the wrong decisions taken by previous governments? Should not those who had done injustice to defence personnel be taken to task? I assure you that law will not spare anybody,” said Mr. Modi.