Amid ongoing row over Rafale, with both Congress and BJP shifting blame at each-other, Pakistan has once again targeted Narendra Modi government calling fighter jet deal as India's Panama.
This for the second time Pakistan has spoken about Rafale after India canceled talks with Pakistan on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly after killing of a soldier.
"Indian government is attempting to put Pakistan under pressure in a face-saving strategy to avoid a multibillion-euro scandal of Rafale aircraft," said Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
Stating that Narendra Modi has been trapped in the Rafale scandal like Nawaz Sharif was trapped in the Panama scandal, Chaudhry said, "India is turning internal politics into external politics to avoid a scandal. They are shifting the burden to Pakistan.”
Earlier, Chaudhry had tagged Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's tweets attacking Modi over the Rafale deal to say that they explain the "BJP-led tirade against Pakistan".
In his tweets, Rahul Gandhi had alleged that Modi and Anil Ambani jointly carried out a "surgical strike" on the defence forces. The BJP and the Congress are involved in a bitter war of words over the alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter aircraft deal.
"The PM and Anil Ambani jointly carried out ... SURGICAL STRIKE on the Indian Defence forces. Modi Ji you dishonoured the blood of our martyred soldiers. Shame on you. You betrayed India's soul (sic)," Gandhi tweeted.
Another tweet of Rahul that was used by Hussain had claimed that the PM personally negotiated and changed the Rafale deal behind closed doors.
However, Union Law Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad attacked the Congress president saying he was "playing into the hands of Pakistan."
On Friday, Hollande was quoted by a French publication as saying that the Indian government proposed Anil Ambani-led Reliance Defence as the partner for Dassault Aviation in the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet fighter deal and France did not have a choice.
The French government said it was in no manner involved in the choice of Indian industrial partners for the Rafale fighter jet deal.
The Congress has also been demanding answers from the government on why state-run aerospace major HAL was not involved in the deal as finalised during the UPA. The opposition parties have also alleged that the Reliance Defence was formed just 12 days before the announcement of the Rafale deal by the prime minister on 10 April 2015. The Reliance group has rejected the charges.
Meanwhile, the Congress continued to launch an offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at Centre over Rafale fighter-jet deal and said that it is hard to keep track of government's lies.
