The Central government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the files related to the Rafale deal had been stolen from the defence ministry. It said that all petitions seeking a review of the court’s verdict on the deal should be dismissed because they were based on the “stolen documents”.
In December 2018, the Supreme Court had dismissed a petition demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the defence deal between India and France. Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders have repeatedly alleged corruption in the deal.
Soon after the news of the Rafale deal files being stolen broke, users started flooding social media with memes on how “Bharatiya Janata Party’s favourite target for all of India’s problems”, Jawaharlal Nehru, was responsible for the theft.
The Modi’s government antipathy towards Jawaharlal Nehru is no secret. The BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have, in the past, repeatedly blamed India’s first prime minister, who died in 1964, for the problems that India faces today. The Modi government has even implied that Nehru is responsible for the conflict situation in Kashmir today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, on several occasions, said that if Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had been the first prime minister of India, the situation in Kashmir would have been starkly different today.
Meanwhile, former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief KS Sudarshan had in April 2005 claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru, and not Nathuram Godse, was responsible for Mahatma Gandhi’s killing.
Modi has also blamed Nehru for playing a significant role in the 1947 partition of the country into India and Pakistan, and subsequently not doing enough for the farmers of India.
In July 2018, the Modi government had announced a plan to alter New Delhi’s Teen Murti Bhavan, which was Nehru’s residence. Teen Murti Bhavan currently houses the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. However, the BJP plans to transform the building into a “Prime Ministers’ Museum”. In September 2018, the Union government ordered the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund to evict the Teen Murti Bhavan.
Also Read:
The Daily Fix: By invoking Official Secrets Act in Rafale case, Centre shows disdain for free press
Rafale: To escape scrutiny, Modi government cites ‘illegally obtained evidence’, national security
How RSS icon MS Golwalkar misrepresented Nehru’s words to justify the Hindutva project of ghar wapsi
Fact check: Did Nehru insult General Thimayya in 1948 after the Indo-Pak War, as Modi claimed?
As Modi undermines Nehru, India is becoming Pakistan’s mirror image
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