Congress, BJP in video war over Rafale deal

New Delhi, Aug. 14 (IANS): The war of words between the Congress and the BJP over the Rafale deal does not seem to be ending. They have now entered a video war. The Congress released on Tuesday a video explaining the deal, countering the explanation offered by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. “What ‘really’ is the Rafale deal? NOT for dummies. Here’s the teaser, stay tuned for more later today...,” said the official Twitter handle of the Congress party as it shared a teaser of the video. Later, releasing the video, it said: “Trapped in the web of lies on #RafaleDeal? Watch this ‘real’ explanation. P.S. To the BJP ‘mitrogen’ is clearly getting to your head.” The video released by the BJP on Monday had featured National Film Award winner actress Pallavi Joshi. Joshi, in a monologue, gave an example of how the former secretary of her housing society failed in purchasing safety locks from a French company despite negotiating for a decade. She, after becoming the secretary of the society, renegotiated the entire deal with the top boss of the same company for a lower price and also got additional services and security. Joshi, at the end of two minute 19-second video, said a similar thing happened with the Rafale deal and through it, India had saved about INR 12,500 crore. In the counter video released by the Congress, an unidentified woman spoke about her experience and thoughts on the safety locks for the society as the former secretary. In an apparent reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she said the “watchman” of the building said he would take care of security of the building. “The watchman said he only needs one-fourth of the locks we ordered because less security is better than more security, right?” she said with a note of sarcasm. She also said the “watchman” called the French company and said one of his friends, who he claimed was an expert in making keys, will make the keys for the locks as he has some debt to pay. Later, she said, it was revealed that the ‘friend’ never made any key ever. At the end of the two-minute 26-second Congress video, the woman said: “Fooling the public is not easy.”