SC BACKS BJP ON RAFALE ISSUE
Party says Congress was distorting facts for political gains
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party, still reeling from a three-state loss to the Congress, on Friday picked up a convenient tool provided by the Supreme Court judgment that dismissed pleas for a probe into the Rafale ighter jet deal.
The apex court on Friday dismissed all the petitions seeking a court-monitored investigation into the deal with France. The verdict on a batch of pleas was delivered by a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph.
BJP president Amit Shah said that the Supreme Court’s judgment on the Rafale deal exposes the campaign of misinformation spearheaded by Congress President for political gains. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, “The matter was crystal clear from the beginning and we have been saying that the allegations levelled by Congress were baseless and to gain political mileage.” “All the igures by the government are correct and all the igures by Rahul Gandhi are false and I have justified it... The truth has only one version and falsehood has many. That is why Mr Rahul Gandhi quoted several igures,” said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The Congress, which had made Rafale the main issue of corruption against the government, was not ready to submit. Its chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala, said the Congress had stated earlier that the Rafale issue cannot be decided by the Supreme Court, and the alleged corruption in the defence contract can only be brought out by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) after examining the iles and notings in the contract.
Senior party leader and opposition leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said the party’s demand for a JPC probe still stands as the main contentious issue was pricing, which SC said it did not want to comment on as it is not in its jurisdiction. “Home Minister is speaking on an incomplete judgement given on a PIL,” he said.
The court verdict on 36 petitions said: “We are satisfied that there is really no occasion to doubt the (decision making) process.
“We do not ind any substantial material on record to show that this is a case of commercial favouritism to any party by the Indian Govt as the option to choose the IOP (Indian Offset Partner) does not vest with the Indian Government.” “Perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a ishing and roving enquiry by this Court, especially in such matters,” said the 29-page verdict.
“It is certainly not the job of this court to carry out a comparison of the pricing details in matters like the present.
“It will not be correct for the court to sit as an appellate authority to scrutinise each aspect of the process of acquisition.” The unanimous verdict said the court had also “closely” examined the price details including that of basic aircraft along with escalation costs. It said the government had claimed there was a commercial advantage in the deal for 36 jets and some better terms in deal qua weapons package and maintenance.