india

Updated: Jan 10, 2019 14:18 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invoked AgustaWestland accused Christian Michel and fired a fresh salvo at the Congress over the UPA regime’s defence deals.

“Many people think that the Congress’s biggest failure was in their mismanagement of the economy and their corruption. But they did deep damage to our armed forces too,” Modi said while interacting with booth workers in Tamil Nadu.

“Not many know how much damage ‘Congress culture’ did to our defence sector. For decades, they had made the defence sector a den of brokers and middlemen,” he said.

Referring to the AugustaWestland case accused Christian Michel, he asked the workers if they knew who he was close to. “Recently, a defence middleman was caught and brought back to India. But do you know who this middleman is close to? This middleman is close to the current ‘First Family’ of the Congress,” Modi said.

“The people of the country deserve to know how did middleman Michel manage the leadership of a party to get the deal. The people of the country deserve to know what role did middleman Michel play in delaying the procurement of Rafale for 10 long years. The people of the country deserve to know what role did middleman Michel play in putting national security in danger,” Modi said.

“The people behind the attacks on our defence procurement are often middlemen from the Congress era and international forces who want to ensure that India’s military doesn’t get stronger,” Modi said.

Earlier in the day, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had launched a tweet attack on PM Modi on the issue of CBI chief Alok Verma’s continuation and linked it to Rafale, a topic that the Congress has been attacking the government on almost every day.

In his tweet, Rahul Gandhi asked two questions:

“1. Why is the PM in such a tearing hurry to sack the CBI Chief?

2. Why will he not allow the CBI Chief to present his case in front of the selection committee ?

Answer: RAFALE,” Rahul Gandhi wrote.