Opposition parties on Wednesday hailed the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Rafale deal case. The top court agreed to hear review pleas challenging an earlier judgement dismissing a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the deal, and dismissed the Centre’s objections to the petitions.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi said the Supreme Court had accepted that there is some form of corruption in the Rafale deal and that the “chowkidaar” had got “chori”, or theft, done, ANI reported.
The Congress asserted that the judgement was a victory for India. “We welcome the Supreme Court’s judgement to review the Rafale petition. Satyamev Jayate [The truth always triumphs]!” the party tweeted.
“Modiji, you can run and lie as much as you want,” Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted in reference to the prime minister. “But sooner or later the truth comes out. The skeletons in the Rafale scam are tumbling out one by one. And there is now no Official Secrets Act to hide behind.”
“A rattled Modiji had threatened to invoke Official Secrets Act against independent journalists for exposing his corruption on Rafale,” the Congress spokesperson claimed. “Don’t worry Modiji, an investigation is going to take place now, whether you like it or not.”
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the Supreme Court’s judgement on Wednesday showed that Modi has committed theft in the Rafale deal. Kejriwal alleged that Modi betrayed the Indian Army and tried to fool the Supreme Court to hide his crime.
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati tweeted that the Modi government’s attempt to hide corruption in the Rafale deal had failed. She demanded that the prime minister apologise to the country and that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman resign.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury claimed that the BJP has compromised national security. “Modi and his government have compromised national security for corruption & cronyism in an important defence deal,” he tweeted. “They tried to evade accountability, denied a Joint Parliamentary Committee, hid price from Comptroller and Auditor General, tried to first mislead, then stall any hearing in Supreme Court. Important that culprits are booked.”
Calling the Narendra Modi government “the most corrupt and compromised government” in India’s history, Yechury urged people to “throw it out”.
Meanwhile, former Union minister Arun Shourie, who was one of the petitioners in the case, told PTI he was delighted by the verdict. “We are delighted it is an unanimous verdict dismissing Central government’s peculiar argument on admissibility of documents,” he said. “Centre’s argument meant no wrong can be done in the defence deal.”
However, the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed that the judgement was not a setback. “It is not a setback, the government will be transparent and will come out clean,” BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said according to News18.
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