'Clown Prince' Rahul Gandhi leading campaign of falsehood: Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today called Rahul Gandhi ‘Clown Prince’ and accused him of spreading falsehood in connection with the Rafale deal and waiving loans given to 15 industrialists.

Jaitley said that the Congress president is leading a campaign of falsehood on the Rafale deal. “His strategy is simple – concoct a lie and repeat it as many times,” he wrote in his Facebook blog titled ‘Falsehood of a ‘Clown Prince’’.

The finance minister also said, “By repeating a lie on several occasions, you can’t change that reality. Not a single rupee of any debtor has been waived.”

Jaitley further alleged that the Congress leaders lied over the amount of Non Performing Assets (NPAs).

“Today the UPA leaders stated that when they went out of Government, the Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) were only Rs 2.5 lakh crores. The truth is that actually NPAs were hidden under the carpet. In 2015, an asset quality review was conducted by the Reserve Bank of India and as a result of AQR and subsequent transparent recognition by banks it was found that the NPAs were actually Rs 8.96 lakh crores and the real amount was being hidden,” the finance minister said.

Intensifying his attack on the Congress president, the finance minister said: “In mature democracies those who rely on falsehood are considered unfit for public life. Many have been banished from political activity because they were caught lying. But this rule obviously can’t apply to a dynastic organisation like Congress Party.”

Jaitley concluded his blog with a taunt at the Congress president saying, “Public discourse is a serious activity. It is not a laughter challenge. It cannot be reduced to a hug, a wink or repetition of falsehood.”

Read Arun Jaitley’s full blog here.