Published 12:23 IST, January 11th 2019
VIRAL: This 8-year-old's pencil box analogy to explain the Rafale deal to Rahul Gandhi is winning the Internet
Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman has hailed a newfound ally's efforts to explain to Rahul Gandhi the intricacies of the Rafale deal over which the Congress president has made repeated but highly superficial allegations of scam
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Raksha Mantri Nirmala Sitharaman has hailed a newfound ally's efforts to explain to Rahul Gandhi the intricacies of the Rafale deal over which the Congress president has made repeated but highly superficial allegations of scam.
A video has gone viral on social media which shows an 8-year old girl tackling the core issue relating to the price of the Dassault Aviation-manufactured fighter.
Beginning her explanation, she picks up the first of two pencil boxes which is empty and says that it's Rahul Gandhi's Rafale fighter - indicating a base (non-weaponised) aircraft, quoting a price of Rs 720 crore. She then picks up the other pencil box, which is full of stationery. This is Modiji's plane, she says, adding that it's packed with advanced technology and weaponry, quoting its price as Rs 1600 crore.
"Rahul Gandhi isn't understanding that one is a basic price and the other is a weaponised price", she concludes.
The matter of the UPA vs NDA Rafale fighter price has been one of the main points of the Congress' allegations, apart from the selection of Anil Ambani's Reliance as an offset partner for the deal.
The Raksha Mantri, in her numerous answers on the subject both on the floor of the house as well as in her #FinalRafaleInterview to Republic TV's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami, as well as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have explained how comparing the UPA's negotiated basic price to the NDA's agreed weaponised aircraft price is a comparison of unlikes. Further, while Jaitley has also spoken about how Rahul Gandhi keeps changing his own numbers, Nirmala Sitharaman has stated that there is no point in speaking about the UPA's 'non-deal'.
In response to the youngster's video, the Raksha Mantri has tweeted her gratitude and extended her wishes for her to fly one of them as a trained IAF fighter pilot.
11:55 IST, January 11th 2019