Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who is all set to become the party president within a month’s time from now, has given a fitting reply to Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for saying that it was shame on the part of the Congress to criticize the ‘Rafale jet’ deal.

During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Paris, France in September last year, a deal worth Rs.58000 crores to acquire 38 Rafale jet planes for the Indian Air Force was inked. Congress has been accusing the Modi-led BJP Govt. at the Centre of having neglected HAL and concluded the deal mainly to promote the business interests of a popular industrialist who had been supporting the party for a long time now.

Replying to the Congress, Nirmala Seetharaman said that everything about the Rafale deal was very transparent. “Congress didn’t conclude any such agreement during its 10-year long rule at the Centre from 2004-14. When it didn’t do any constructive work during its regime, it should feel ashamed to criticize others for doing work,” the Minister said.

Taking on the Minister on his Twitter account, Rahul retorted saying that what was actually ‘shameful’ was that she (the Minister) had been silenced by her boss (read: Narendra Modi). “Do you have answers to these queries? (1) Final price of each jet; (2) Did PM take approval of CCS before announcing purchase in Paris; and (3) Why PM by-passed HAL and gave the deal to a businessmen who has no defence experience?”

Nirmala is yet to reply to Rahul’s tweets.