The Lok Sabha on Monday witnessed tit-for-tat privilege notices against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the government and the Opposition locked horns over who had lied about the Rafale deal.

A notice for a breach of privilege motion was also moved against law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the Rajya Sabha by Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, the leader of the Opposition in the Upper House.

Congress member Sunil Jakhar moved the notice against Modi in the Lok Sabha, accusing him of misleading the Supreme Court on the Rafale deal — the same charge on which Azad sought action on Prasad.

Anurag Thakur, BJP chief whip in the Lower House, hit back with a privilege notice against Rahul, accusing him of misleading Parliament over the aircraft deal during the debate on the no-confidence motion against the government last session.

A privilege notice accuses an MP of misusing his or her privileges — a set of rights and immunities — which the House can punish through a host of measures, including censure and suspension.

However, such notices against high dignitaries like the Prime Minister have an almost zero chance of success, and are moved mainly to make a point.

“I have given a breach of privilege notice against the government, and in particular against law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, as it was the law ministry that gave the go-ahead for presenting the affidavit before the Supreme Court,” Azad said.

He alleged that this was the first time that a government had provided wrong information to the Supreme Court.

While dismissing a batch of petitions challenging the Rafale deal on Friday, the apex court had erroneously said the public accounts committee of Parliament had already examined the CAG report on the deal.

The Congress has cited this to accuse the government of lying to the court, but the Centre claims the court misinterpreted two sentences in its note, resulting in the error.

Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala on Monday questioned the BJP’s media blitz — in the form of 70 news conferences across the country — about the “clean chit” from the apex court. He said the BJP should answer key questions relating to the judgment before activating its “lie factory”.

“They should explain to the country where the CAG report, which was supposedly examined by the PAC, is,” he said.

“There are several flaws in the order. The court said the pact between Reliance and Dassault existed since 2012 whereas Reliance Defence was incorporated only on March 28, 2015. Former French President Francois Hollande has never contradicted his statement (that India proposed the name of the offset partner) but the court was misled on this too.”

Surjewala went on: “Why did the government tell the court that HAL (the public sector unit bypassed in the choice of offset partner) had nothing to do with the Rafale deal while the truth is that a work-share agreement had been signed after protracted negotiations (during UPA rule)?”

Surjewala said the alleged jump in pricing — from Rs 526 crore per aircraft under the UPA’s proposed deal to Rs 1,670 crore in the NDA’s deal — had not been explained, either.

“The DPP (defence procurement procedure) 2013 was amended on August 5, 2015, after the announcement of the deal to insert the clause that Dassault could choose its offset partner without consulting the government. This fact was also hidden from the Supreme Court,” Surjewala said.