'A Repeat Offender': Nirmala Sitharaman Lashes Out At Rahul Gandhi Over Adani-PM Link Allegations

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accused Rahul Gandhi of making unjustifiable accusations against the Prime Minister and called him a "repeat offender."

She made her remarks at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party was escalating their attack on the Congress leader after the Surat court's judgment in a defamation case against him.

“We saw that prior to the 2019 elections, and now he’s doing it again. He doesn’t seem to learn any lessons from all these false allegations that he wants to level against the Prime Minister,” Sitharaman said at a press conference in Bengaluru.

Sitharaman refuted Congress' claim of links between Gautam Adani and the PM, stating that “If Rahul Gandhi thinks Adani has been given all these ‘things’, it’s not true.”

“It was the Congress government that gave on a platter the Vizhinjam port to Adani. It was not given on basis of any tender. Now, it’s not his government. It’s the CPM’s, but what has stopped him (Rahul) from demanding that Kerala cancel that order? Equally, in Rajasthan, the entire solar power plant project has been given to Adani.

"Like the way in 2013 when (then) PM Manmohan Singh was outside the country, he came and tore the ordinance (over the disqualification of MPs), why doesn’t he tear up the Rajasthan agreement with Adani?” Sitharaman said.

“He keeps throwing allegations against the PM. I challenge him to go and cancel all these orders which were given by his own government,” Sitharaman added.

“If any crony capitalism is happening, it is happening in Congress-led governments, and Rahul Gandhi will not speak a word about it,” she said.