The 150-minute reply to the Rafale debate given by the Union defence minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Lok Sabha last Friday came in for much praise from her party colleagues. Labelling it a "must watch', the prime minister tweeted that the speech "demolishes the campaign of calumny on Rafale'.


Echoing him, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Amit Shah, said, "defence minister [Sitharamanji] has completely demolished Congress party's lies and misinformation campaign on Rafale with her excellent speech loaded with facts. I congratulate her for bringing the truth to the nation.' And finance minister, Arun Jaitley, congratulated her for "an outstanding performance'.


Read Manini Chatterjee's column here