Jaitley, Rahul engage in war of words over Rafale

New Delhi: War of words between the BJP and the Congress over Rafale deal escalated on Tuesday when Union finance minister Arun Jaitley accused the Congress president Rahul Gandhi of “concocting” falsehood and the Congress hit back at him by calling him as a “babble blogger” and dismissing his “clown prince out-clowning himself” barb at Mr Gandhi as “hollow rants of a court jester”.

Continuing to call Congress leader a “clown prince”, Mr Jaitley in a Facebook blog wondered if Mr Gandhi has a personality issue where “he lies a dozen times and then in self-delusion believes it to be true or is it a case of a ‘Clown Prince’ out-clowning himself?”

Terming Mr Gandhi’s allegation that he met multi-billion PNB fraud accused Nirav Modi in Parliament, the finance minister said, “I do not recollect ever having even seen Nirav Modi in my life. The question of his meeting me in Parliament does not arise. If he came to Parliament, as Mr Gandhi claims, then reception records would show that. Where have I admitted all this Mr Gandhi?”.

Mr Jaitley noted that while speaking at two different functions in Madhya Pradesh on Monday, Mr Gandhi made two references to him. In the first one, Mr Jaitley said that the Congress president claimed, “I have admitted that Vijay Mallya met me in Parliament. He further claims I have further admitted that Mallya told me that he was escaping to London and that I helped him to escape”.

With regards to Mallya, Mr Jaitley said as a member of Parliament, Mallya once chased him in the corridor of Parliament to discuss his case.