In a fresh attempt to build his political career on the basis of not just blatant lies, but utter nonsense, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has got himself involved in contempt of court case. On the basis of his imbecile remarks regarding the Rafale jet matter, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi has moved the Supreme Court accusing Rahul Gandhi of contempt of court.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that Congress president made a remark claiming that, “Supreme Court has said chowkidaar chor hai” in the verdict. Since this remark on an ongoing proceeding is clearly a contempt of court, the apex court has decided to hear the plea on Monday.
Supreme Court agrees to hear on April 15, a contempt petition of BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Congress President Rahul Gandhi. pic.twitter.com/yDSbDJ8qAG
— ANI (@ANI) April 12, 2019
“The Congress president probably doesn’t read even half a paragraph of the court’s order, but here, by saying that the court has has said ‘chowkidaar chor hai’, it is verging on contempt of court,” Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
In his impatience to declare the perpetrator, by disregarding the truth, Rahul Gandhi has strangely 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 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).
The Attorney General KK Venugopal objected to reliance of these documents by saying that they were ‘stolen’ from the Ministry of Defence, and said that they were protected by ‘privilege’ under Section 123 of the Indian Evidence Act and under the Official Secrets Act and that their disclosure is exempted under the Right to Information Act as per Section 8(1)(a).
The Supreme Court however, dismissed the preliminary objections by the centre against use of ‘privileged documents’ and had decided to hear the review petitions on a later date.
Rahul Gandhi apparently couldn’t contain his excitement over the small ray of hope in the otherwise doomed elections. It is pertinent to note here that the review petition does not supersede or revoke the earlier judgment by the Supreme Court. There is no stay in the previous judgment. This petition is a separate case, and will be decided on its own merits. Nevertheless, Rahul Gandhi, unable to comprehend the pronouncement, viewed the Courts preliminary hearing as substantive proof of PM Modi’s corruption.
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 a fishing and roving enquiry by this Court, especially in such matters. We, thus, dismiss all the writ petitions.”
The opposition, however, clearly perturbed by the Supreme Court’s judgment is trying to implicate an honest government for corruption. “Congress has been destroyed by defence scams. So they try to make the same allegations against all governments,” PM Modi stated.
With the clean chit that 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 has hurt his own case, as has been his precedence, time and again.
