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Ready to fight battle of perception: Nirmala

NEW DELHI: As the political row over the Rafale deal rages on, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that the government is ready to fight the "battle of perception" and would counter Congress's allegations with facts.

"This is a perception battle. We will fight this battle. We'll go to places and state facts on record on Rafale. Congress designs to run a smear campaign against us at an international level," the defence minister said.

Firing a fresh salvo at a meeting in his Amethi constituency on Monday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi asked the Prime Minister for answers on why Rafale price was not disclosed and how Anil Ambani got the contract.

The BJP, meanwhile, dragged Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Sonia Gandhi, into the row and alleged that the Congress was trying to help controversial arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

In a press conference, the BJP said that the Congress, as part of a well-scripted conspiracy, has compared the price of a fully-loaded aircraft with a bare aircraft.

"For the last few days, Rahul Gandhi is misleading the country by comparing the cost of an unloaded aircraft with a fully loaded aircraft. The present Rafale deal is almost 20% cheaper than the UPA deal," Union minister and BJP leader Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said.

On the allegations of sidelining the government-owned HAL, the BJP leader said that the deal with the public sector unit was never finalised.

In a fresh offensive against the government, the Congress tweeted a video of the Chairman of Dassault - the company that manufacturers the Rafale fighter -saying the company's deal with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) to manufacture 108 Rafales in India was almost done, just two weeks before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a brand new agreement in Paris excluding the state-run aeronautics and defence giant. Two days before the new deal was announced, even then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar told reporters that HAL was on board.

The video tweeted by the Congress shows Dassault chief Eric Trappier speaking on March 25, 2015, in the presence of the IAF and HAL officers. Trappier can be heard discussing responsibility sharing on the Rafale contract.

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