New Delhi, Jul 22(NIE): Criticising Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on the Rafael fighter jet deal with France, Union Minister Arun Jaitley has stated that by “concocting a conversation” with French president Emmanuel Macron, the Congress president has “lowered his own credibility and seriously hurt the image of an Indian politician before the world”.

Jaitley alleged that Rahul had embarrassed even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by “implicitly insinuating” that he was witness to a conversation, “being wholly unaware that his government had entered into the secrecy pact.”

Participating in the no-confidence motion debate in Lok Sabha on Friday, Rahul had said that Macron had told him that there was no binding secrecy clause in the Rafale deal. The French government, in a statement, denied it.

Rahul, however, said that he stood by his statement in Parliament. “Let them deny if they want. He (Macron) said that before me. I was there, Anand Sharma and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were also there,” he said.

Stressing that a debate on the no-confidence motion is expected to raise the level of political discourse, and facts should be sacrosanct in it, Jaitley wrote in a Facebook post, “Frivolity and the No Confidence Motion”: “Rahul Gandhi, by concocting a conversation with President Macron, has lowered his own credibility and seriously hurt the image of an Indian politician before the world at large…. He (Rahul) now seeks to embarrass Dr Manmohan Singh by implicitly insinuating that Dr Singh was a witness to the conversation, being wholly unaware that his own Government had entered into the secrecy pact.”

According to Jaitley, Rahul had missed a “great opportunity.” He wrote: “If this was his best argument for 2019, God help his party. His lack of understanding is not only confined to basic issues but also to the niceties of protocol. One should never misquote a conversation with a Head of Government or a Head of State…”

Jaitley stated that lead participants in the debate are normally senior political leaders. They are expected to raise the level of political discourse. “A Vote of No Confidence against the Government is a serious business. It is not an occasion for frivolity,” he wrote.

The BJP-led NDA government Friday defeated the no-trust motion 325 against 126 votes.

According to Jaitley, there is no minister who either desires to change or is constitutionally entitled to change the Constitution of India. Referring to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Jaitley wrote that the last Indian politician who wanted the power to change the Constitution was Rahul’s grandmother, and “she too failed”.