Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the Narendra Modi government of destroying the state-run aerospace company HAL, which he described as a “strategic asset”, and told its employees that “Rafale is your right”.

The Congress opposes the offset contract in the Rafale deal going to Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence and HAL being omitted, seeing in it an instance of crony capitalism by Prime Minister Modi.

“Rafale is your right; you are a 78-year-old company. You have the experience to build the plane,” the Congress president said during an interaction with present and former HAL employees near the company headquarters.

He said it was “completely ridiculous” for the government to say that HAL lacked the required experience.

“Every single person here made it very clear that they have the experience. They have the understanding and Mr Anil Ambani does not have the understanding,” he said.

“Why hasn’t the work being given to them? Why is HAL being destroyed by Anil Ambani — that is the question.”

Rahul said the employees felt hurt that their hard work over the last 78 years, and their patriotism, had been insulted.

“So the first thing is that they expect an apology from the defence minister for insulting HAL. We understand that the defence minister is not going to apologise,” he said.

Rahul addresses a gathering of present and former employees of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd in Bangalore on Saturday. (AFP)

Rahul said that HAL was one of the “modern temples” of India and was being destroyed “because of corruption that Narendra Modi is doing to help Anil Ambani”.

“We are here to defend the people who are defending the nation. From the government, we have to defend HAL,” he said.

Rahul told the gathering he understood “deeply” that they were pained and hurt and that “this is as important to me as any corruption or anything that has happened”.

“People who have given their lives, people who have stood by this country, are feeling emotionally upset because they have been insulted,” he said.

“I know that the government is not going to apologise, but on their behalf I apologise to you, even though I have nothing to do with it. I understand that that you are hurt and I want to stand with you in your discomfort.”

Rahul said that most of the employees who had spoken to him had alleged that an attempt was being made to “dismantle” the defence PSU.

He later told reporters that defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had spoken about HAL’s lack of experience but had said nothing about the lack of experience of Ambani, “who has never built a plane in his life”.

“HAL has no debt; he has Rs 45,000 crore of debt. HAL has been working for 78 years; his company has been working for 12 days. So she has no comment about the person who got the contract. She has to comment about HAL’s experience.”

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman at a production facility of Dassault Aviation near Paris on Friday. (PTI)

HAL had issued an internal communication to its employees on Friday, reminding them about their obligations relating to their conduct and discipline.

The HAL employees’ union said the Congress had sought an interaction with the employees but the union had decided against participating as it is an apolitical body.

“We got a communication from the Congress office but we can’t take sides for a political party, being government employees. Our union is an independent union; we are not affiliated to any political party,” the union’s general secretary, Suryadevara Chandra Shekhar, said.

Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao said Saturday’s discussion had not been organised by the Congress but by “some people”, including a group of ex-employees, who were “pained” by the government’s attempts to “ruin HAL’s name”.

Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, M. Veerappa Moily, G. Parameshwara (the deputy chief minister), P.C. Siddaramaiah and Jaipal Reddy were present at the interaction.

Rahul has been saying that had HAL been selected, it could have generated employment for scores of unemployed youths in Karnataka.