NEW DELHI: The Congress today hit back at Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, dubbing him as a "habitual offender in weaving lies", and asked why he or Prime Minister Narendra Modi have not answered questions raised by Rahul Gandhi on Rafale deal and other issues of alleged corruption.
The opposition party's reaction came after Prasad ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for challenging Modi for a debate, saying he is not worthy to have a debate with the PM.
"Modi Government's Law Minister is a habitual offender in weaving lies based on figments of his imagination. Today again he brazenly misled the people by sewing together a 'web of lies' to save his master Narendra Modi. Instead of answering the Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
The Congress again raised the allegation that BJP chief Amit Shah had deliberately hid his son's contingent liabilities and credit facilities worth Rs 97.35 crore.
"How did 'Shah-Zaada' multiply his earnings by 16000 times?" Surjewala said.
The charges were earlier dismissed by the BJP as "bogus and fake".
Stepping up attack on the Rafale issue, Surjewala said the government should answer questions on the "unilateral deal which snatched the Rs 30,000 crore offset contract from HAL, thereby benefitting a private entity which has zero experience in manufacturing fighter aircraft".
Earlier, Prasad claimed that the Congress president is jittery after the Income Tax department opened assessment of a firm in which he and his mother Sonia Gandhi have majority share, and alleged that the company -- Young India -- acquired over Rs 5,000 crore worth of assets with an investment of merely Rs 50 lakh.
The BJP leader accused Gandhi of repeatedly lying in his allegations of corruptions against the Modi government.
"If he thinks that his allegations of corruption against the Modi government or Modi will mitigate the action against him, then let me tell him that it is not going to happen," Prasad said.
Surjewala said Rahul Gandhi asked the same questions that he has been asking from the Prime Minister as to the reason of secrecy behind the Rafale Scam.
"Why did PM Modi bypass the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS)? Why was Rs 41,000 crore loss cause to public exchequer by 300 pc rise in the purchase price of Rafale planes from Rs 526 crore per aircraft to Rs 1670 crore per aircraft? "Why was India denied the 'Transfer of Technology' to manufacture Rafale aircrafts? Why was Defence Procurement Procedure violated with impunity?," he asked.
The Congress leader said "the country feels sorry for the Law Minister, because instead of talking on the issue at hand, he was busy deflecting public attention by joining imaginary issues".
"If the Modi government really wishes to adhere to established standards of transparency and propriety, we demand that it immediately set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the Rafale scam," he said.
Surjewala underlined that commercial price of defence deals including the French MIRAGE aircraft and Sukhoi aircraft were revealed on the floor of Parliament by Congress-led governments and said, "the people of India are looking for answers".