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This story is from December 14, 2018

SC verdict on the Rafale defence deal: War of words between BJP and Congress

The Congress and BJP on Friday were involved in a war of words following the Supreme Court's verdict on the PIL filed on the Rafale defence deal where it said that there was no case of commercial favouritism into the deal. While the BJP said that the apex court's verdict has exposed Congress's lies, the Congress insisted that it is going to continue with its campaign.
Ravi Shankar Prasad slams Rahul Gandhi, says SC's Rafale verdict exposed his lies
Key Highlights
  • Falsehood has a very short life, said Arun Jaitley
  • It is straightforward that the Prime Minister helped his friend Anil Ambani: Rahul Gandhi
  • Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the nation for misleading people: Amit Shah
  • The SC today gave a clean chit to the Modi government in the Rafale case
NEW DELHI: A war of words erupted between the BJP and Congress on Friday after the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the Narendra Modi government in the Rafale case, observing there was no case of "irregularities" and commercial favouritism in the multi-billion dollar deal.
Shortly after the apex court held that there was no wrongdoing in government's procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation, the BJP launched an all-out attack on the Congress, which has constantly targeted the Modi government over the deal.

"Falsehood has a very short life," finance minister Arun Jaitley said as he defended the 2016 defence deal signed between the governments of France and India.
The finance minister, in a joint press conference with defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said that the deal is not only viable from the point of view of country's security, but is also commercially sound.
"The final price was significantly lower both for the aircraft and weaponised aircraft than what was negotiated under UPA in 2007 and 2012," he stated.
The defence minister, too, echoed the views of the finance minister, saying that the apex court's verdict has "put to rest" the controversy surrounding the Rafale defence deal.
Pricing was one of the three issues addressed by the Supreme Court in its verdict, earlier in the day. The other two being the decision-making process and the selection of Indian offset partners, including Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence, by Dassault Aviation.

Later in the evening, a belligerent Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of "deliberately" concealing the actual price of the fighter jets.
"How can it be possible that the foundation of SC judgement saying that pricing has been discussed in CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report ... PAC (Public Accounts Committee) chairman (M Kharge) is sitting here, how come he never saw it. No one in PAC ever saw it. But Supreme Court saw it. The government will have to explain to us where is the CAG report? Show it to PAC chairman Kharge ji. Maybe a different PAC is running parallel, maybe in a different Parliament, maybe in the Parliament of France. It's possible Modi ji has constituted his own PAC in PMO," he said.
"The entire country knows that the watchman is a thief. It is pretty straightforward and we will prove that the country's Prime Minister is a friend of Anil Ambani and he has helped Anil Ambani in stealing the country's money," he added.
Reacting to Rahul's comments, Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Rahul Gandhi made disgraceful remarks on Prime Minister whose honesty is known to all. SC judgment has exposed the lies of Rahul Gandhi. We expected him to accept the judgment. Now Rahul Gandhi is condoning SC as well. Are he and the Congress above SC," he asked.
BJP president Amit Shah, who was one of the first BJP leaders to react to the verdict, in a tweet, said — "Truth always triumphs."
Later, Shah, addressing the media, said that the apex court's verdict has exposed the Congress party, which he accused of orchestrating a campaign of "misinformation" spearheaded by Rahul.
Shah also demanded that Rahul, in the wake of the court's verdict, should tender an apology to the people for "defaming" the country globally.
The BJP president also posed a set of four questions in front of his Congress counterpart — "What was the Congress' source of information on basis of which it levelled such grave allegations? Why was the deal not finalised till 2014, when the process was finalised in 2007 itself? Why did the Congress favour middleman and not relied on government-to-government deals? and, Why did the Congress comprised the national security?"
However, the Congress, it appeared, was not ready to put the matter to rest, albeit the verdict of the apex court.
Congress spokesperson Randeep S Surjewala said that media and a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) are more equipped to handle the issue of alleged corruption in the defence deal, rather than the Supreme Court.
"The verdict of the Supreme Court today is a validation of what the Congress party stated before that the SC is not the forum to decide such a sensitive defence contract. Article 136 and 32 are not the forum to decide the issue, the pricing, the process, the sovereign guarantee and the corruption in the Rafale contract. Only media is a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) are equipped to probe the entire corruption in the Rafale deal," he said.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma was more forthright in his views. "We reject this SC order. We will not rest until the parliamentary committee takes charge of all the files, documents on Rafale," he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the court's verdict is not a setback for his party and they will continue to raise the issue in Parliament.
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