Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Saturday took a dig at finance minister Arun Jaitley for saying the NDA government had clinched the Rafale aircraft deal at a cheaper price, asking why had it not then bought seven squadrons instead of two.

“FM (finance minister) maintains that in the Rafale deal negotiated by NDA the price of the aircraft was cheaper by 9% or 20%. If so, why did the government buy only 36 aircraft and not 126 aircraft (as planned under the UPA deal)?” Chidambaram asked.

He highlighted that the air force had said it needed at least 7 squadrons (126 aircraft).

“Then, why did the government buy only 2 squadrons (36 aircraft)? Will someone please solve this mystery?” he said. “By buying only 36 aircraft..., the government has compromised national security.”

The Congress has been saying that the price of each Rafale aircraft was Rs 526 crore under the UPA deal but has risen to Rs 1,670 crore under the NDA’s.

PM slams Cong

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Congress on Saturday, saying it looked at “national security and the defence sector (as) either a punching bag or a funding source”, a report from Chennai said.

His comments came at an interaction with BJP workers from Tamil Nadu through videoconferencing from here.

Modi alleged that while the Congress mocked the army’s September 2016 “surgical strike” on terror camps across the frontier, it had looted the defence sector through Bofors and other scams.

the jeep scam of the ’40s and ’50s, the Bofors scandal of the ’80s and the recent AgustaWestland scam, among others.

“All they see is the way to make money even if it means the morale of our forces is diminished,” Modi said. “We are proud of our forces and have faith in them.”