New Delhi: On the eve of the first phase polling of the crucial Lok Sabha polls, the Supreme Court’s order, allowing petitioners seeking a review of the Rafale judgment to rely on leaked documents, brought cheers in the Opposition camp, especially in Congress which hailed the order, saying the Narendra Modi government now has “no official secrets act” to hide behind and a probe into the “scam” will take place. The BJP asserted that the court’s order was not a setback and that the Congress will not be able to “shows its face”.
“I want to thank the Supreme Court. The entire country is saying that Chowkidar has committed theft. It is a day of celebration that the Supreme Court has talked about justice...Some days ago, the PM said in an interview that the Supreme Court had given a clean chit. Today the Supreme Court made it clear that it suspects there is corruption involved. I have been saying that Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani need to be investigated. I am very happy that what I have been saying for months, that PM Modi has stolen Indian Air Force’s funds and given Anil Ambani 30,000 crores, Supreme Court has accepted it and will investigate it,” Mr Gandhi said in his parliamentary constituency Amethi, where he filed his nomination papers to contest for the fourth time.
Alleging that the government has compromised on national security, CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, tweeted: “Modi and his govt have compromised national security for corruption and cronyism in an important defence deal. They tried to evade accountability, denied a JPC, hid price from CAG, tried to first mislead, then stall any hearing in Supreme Court. Important that culprits are booked.”
As the Opposition parties hailed the apex court’s order, the defence ministry claimed that the petitioners in the Rafale deal case are using certain documents with the intention to present a selective and incomplete picture of internal secret deliberations relating to national security. Hitting back at Mr Gandhi, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Mr Gandhi “probably does not even read even half a paragraph” and by saying that the court has accepted and that the court has said ‘Chowkidaar chor hai,’ is on the verge on contempt of court.
