Congress President Rahul Gandhi regrets making the statement regarding the Supreme Court’s Rafale judgment. The SC proceedings took place today morning, where the Congress supremo has accepted that he manipulated the verdict in the heat of the political campaign. The Congress president has answered the notice and effectively admitted that he was wrong in using the phrase “Chowkidar Chor hai” during his campaign.
In an attempt to build his political career on the basis of not just blatant lies, but utter nonsense, Congress President Rahul Gandhi got himself involved in a case of contempt of court. On the basis of his imbecile remarks regarding the Rafale jet matter, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi had moved the Supreme Court accusing Rahul Gandhi of contempt of court. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that the Congress president made a remark claiming that, “Supreme Court has said chowkidaar chor hai” in the verdict. Since this remark on an ongoing proceeding was clearly contempt of court, the apex court decided to hear the plea. In his impatience to declare the perpetrator, by disregarding the truth, Rahul Gandhi had interpreted the Supreme Court order to confirm his allegation that PM Modi had stolen Rs 30,000 crore from the Indian Air Force to give to Anil Ambani.
The controversy surrounding the Rafale matter had come to an end when the Supreme Court bench had given the NDA government a clean chit, dismissing all writ petitions on 14th December, 2018. However, on the basis of confidential reports published by ‘The Hindu’, petitions were filed, seeking a review of the December 14th judgment. These review petitions were filed by the former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, journalist-turned-politician Arun Shourie and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan. The documents relied on by the petitioners were stolen from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
While pronouncing the judgment on 14th December, the court had stated, “In view of our findings on all the three aspects (namely, the decision making process, difference in pricing and the choice of Indian Offset Partner), and having heard the matter in detail, we find no reason for any intervention by this Court on the sensitive issue of purchase of 36 defence aircrafts by the Indian Government. Perception of individuals cannot be the basis of fishing and roving enquiry by this Court, especially in such matters. We, thus, dismiss all the writ petitions.”
It was pertinent to note here that the review petition did not supersede or revoke the earlier judgment by the Supreme Court. There was no stay in the previous judgment. This petition is a separate case, and will be decided on its own merits. Rahul Gandhi apparently couldn’t contain his excitement over the small ray of hope in the otherwise doomed elections. Nevertheless, Congress Supremo was, unable to comprehend the pronouncement, viewed the Courts preliminary hearing as substantive proof of PM Modi’s corruption.
With the clean chit that the Modi government received from the court as well as the CAG, whose report stated, “The deal under NDA at 7.87 billion Euros for 36 jets was 2.86 percent cheaper than the price that was being negotiated by the UPA in 2012”; the current government was ready to prove its integrity in the present case and emerge victorious. Rahul Gandhi however, in his impatience, and sheer disregard for the truth had hurt his own case, and finally has apologized for his statements to the apex court.
