Rahul Gandhi will end up being "Ra-fail" in his endeavour to "mislead" people on the Rafale deal, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today as he took a swipe at the Congress president amid the raging political storm over the purchase of the fighter jets.


He also asked Congress leaders to advise Gandhi against using "derogatory" language to target the prime minister, an apparent reference to the main opposition party chief's "chor" (thief) jibe at Narendra Modi.


"It is not Rafale...It is Ra-fail (Rahul-fail)...He will be a failure. Rahul Gandhi knows the truth about the Rafale deal but is trying to mislead the people on the issue," Singh told a meeting of the Kerala state council of the BJP.


The meeting was called to ratify the appointment of P S Sreedharan Pillai as the party's new state chief. In an apparent reference to Pakistani leaders targeting Modi over the Rafale issue, Singh said, "You know the truth but knowingly or unknowingly you are talking in support of Pakistan."


After New Delhi cancelled the meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly over the killing of policemen in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Hussain had said it was done to divert the attention from the Rafale "scandal".


Pakistan's former interior minister Rehman Malik had also said Rahul Gandhi will be next Prime Minister of India if he followed "Jetgate" (Rafale deal) properly. "If you repeat a lie many times, people are bound to start believing it. That is what the opposition leaders are doing on the Rafale issue," Singh said.


Without referring directly to Gandhi's "chor" barb, Singh said,"The Congress president is using deregatory remarks against the prime minister. Congress should advise its chief not to lower the dignity of his own postition with such remarks against the prime minister." -- PTI