(With inputs from Agencies)

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said in an interview to news agency ANI that the NDA government is procuring Rafale aircraft at a 20 per cent lower price than the one negotiated by the UPA in 2007.Separately, in a Facebook post he accused the Congress of "peddling untruth" on the deal, saying the "false campaign" by the opposition party and its leader Congress President Rahul Gandhi was seriously compromising national security.The Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi has launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversial Rafale deal , alleging a "scam" in the deal with France. Rahul has also accused defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman of doing a "flip-flop" on the secrecy clause and alleged that the government is procuring the fighter jets at a higher cost to benefit private parties involved in the deal.''Wrong", said Jaitley.In the interview to ANI, Jaitley underlined the fact that each of these aircraft were coming fully loaded and the deal is between government to government without involving anyone in between.If one factored in currency fluctuations and hard negotiations by the NDA government, the result is a cheaper aircraft, he explained."Let us first come to the pricing. My question therefore is, if you are fully aware -- Mr Anthony fully read the file and abandoned the contract -- he would tell his party that the L1 offer of 2007 had a basic 2007 price plus escalation plus currency variation. In 2015 or 16, this would have been 9 per cent costlier than what the basic aircraft price of 2016 negotiated was… Loaded to unloaded, you compare the price again. The 2016 price is 20 per cent cheaper than the 2007 offer. So, we got it cheaper," Jaitley asserted.Slamming the Congress president's charge of a more expensive final Rafale jet being purchased by the present government, Jaitley said that every fact by the Congress is factually false."What was negotiated from 2015 to 2016 and finally executed in 2016, with the escalations and the currency variations, the basic aircraft price turns out to be 9 per cent cheaper. Is the Congress party aware of this?" he added"Every fact that they have said on pricing is factually false... Mr Rahul Gandhi himself has given seven different prices in different speeches with regard to the Rafale, that is the 2007 offer. And the simple case is they have made it as if it is a kindergarten or primary school debate," Jaitley said.In his Facebook blog, he posed 15 questions to Rahul and said the deal NDA government had entered into with France on April 10, 2015 for purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets was on "better" terms than the one agreed to by the UPA government in 2007."I am asking these questions as his misadventure is impairing national interest and I hope Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party would respond immediately," he wrote.The minister asserted that no rules were bypassed, and the Cabinet Committee on Security approval was taken during the deal and the negotiations took about 14 months to complete."Congress party's false campaign launched on Rafale aircraft deal based on peddled untruth has been casting a cloud on the Inter-Governmental agreement & seriously compromising national security," said Jaitley on Facebook.He also accused the Congress of compromising national security and said it was guilty on three counts - delaying the deal by over a decade comprising national security, speaking of falsehood on pricing and procedure, and further delaying the defence procurement by raising these issues."India's security was compromised. Was it policy paralysis or decision paralysis that you allow India's security to be compromised by indefinitely not taking a decision or was there any collateral consideration which compelled you to just abandon it and put India's security at risk? After all, once you have gone through a tendering process," he said to ANI.He challenged the Congress party to produce evidence that the deal was not good for the country and attacked for twisting the facts of the deal."Needless to say that I am constrained by the secrecy clause which exists in the contract and whatever I ask or respond to would be constrained by that limitation," he said.