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In regret affidavit, Rahul Gandhi quotes PM Modi’s ‘clean chit’ on Rafale
Rahul Gandhi said he had made the statement “in the heat of political campaigning”
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has clarified his comment on the Rafale deal review petition that was seen to attribute his political slogan ‘chowkidar chor hai’ to the Supreme Court. He said if the court felt he had attributed any remark to the Supreme Court, he regretted it. Rahul Gandhi said he had made the statement “in the heat of political campaigning” and his reaction to the April 10 court ruling on admissibility of documents in the review petition “unfortunately got juxtaposed and mingled with a political slogan”.
Lekhi had complained that Gandhi “replaced his personal statement as Supreme Court’s order”.
But as he presented his defence, Rahul Gandhi also explained his statement as a “purely political” response to the many statements issued by top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi that described the Supreme Court’s December verdict rejecting the demand for an inquiry into the Rafale deal as a “clean chit”.
WATCH: ‘Chowkidar chor’ vs ‘SC’s contempt’: Rahul, Nirmala face off on Rafale order
“These imputations to the Supreme Court are false and untrue,” Rahul Gandhi said, who quoted from 10 statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and top BJP leaders to make his point.
Rahul Gandhi’s affidavit, filed in response to a contempt petition by BJP lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi, will be taken up by a Supreme Court bench chaired by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi tomorrow.
The Supreme Court had earlier this month allowed three sets of documents to be used in the Rafale review petition, rejecting protests from the government which cited various grounds including national security to block use of these papers.
Gandhi, who was in Amethi to file his nomination papers, had reacted to the news, saying: “Now the Supreme Court has made it clear that ‘chowkidarji’ (watchman) has committed a theft… I want to directly challenge that the Supreme Court has stated that you have indulged in corruption.”
Last week, the court made it clear that they had not made any of the comments attributed to them by Rahul Gandhi and they had only decided “a purely legal question of admissibility of certain documents”.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which had taken umbrage at his comments, has demanded that Rahul Gandhi apologise to the people as well.
“This was an attempt by Rahul Gandhi to manufacture a lie and create a controversy in the Rafale deal... He should apologise to the people of this country,” said the ruling party’s GVL Narsimha Rao, calling the Congress leader “liar of the first order”.
The Congress president told the court on Monday that his response was based upon the immediate general perception that the court had reopened the case for hearing, not allowed the shutting out of new facts and documents and the general sense of victory amongst those campaigning for an inquiry into the Rafale issue.
The statements were made in Hindi in a rhetorical flourish in the heat of the moment, Gandhi said.
