The Congress President’s remarks were stoutly opposed by Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman, who produced documents of the 2008 deal to claim that because of a clause on ‘secrecy, the Government was not in a position to disclose details and that the Congress President’s allegations were baseless.

The Prime Minister too in his reply refused to answer the questions or address the issue. Instead, he ridiculed the allegedly ill-informed and ‘childish’ allegations, which, he maintained, had made India a laughing stock in the world.

On Monday former union ministers AK Antony and Anand Sharma told newsmen that there was no constraint on the Government on disclosing the price it paid for Rafale. The former Raksha Mantri AK Antony said that he himself had informed Parliament of prices of defence procurement.

Anand Sharma recalled that the present Raksha Mantri herself had told the media that she would disclose the details at a press conference in Novembe, 2016. Clearly, he said, Nirmala Sitharaman was either ignorant of the secrecy clause or knew very well that there was no such clause in the agreement. She had in fact directed the Defence Secretary to furnish the information to the media.

The secrecy clause was invented later, he maintained.

The French President too in his interview to India Today had said that the Indian Government was at liberty to inform Parliament about the price. But the Raksha Mantri read out selectively from the interview to claim that operational details were expected to remain secret.