Government seeks SC correction in Rafale verdict

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi regime at the Centre, which was celebrating Friday’s Supreme Court verdict trashing requests for a probe Into THE RAFALE ighter JET DEAL, on Saturday rushed to the court seeking to ix A “FACTUAL Error” In THE order as the Congress party turned the tables on the government.

The Congress party, which had crushed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in its bastions in the Assembly elections, alleged that the government had lied to the court, whose order referred in the verdict to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report. The 29-page judgement said the report was shared with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), but Congress leader Mallikajun Kharge, who heads the PAC, said he has never seen the report.

“The government lied in the SC that the CAG report was presented in the House and before the PAC and the PAC has probed it. The government said in SC that it (the CAG report) is in public Domain. WHERE Is It? HAVE you seen It?” Kharge told the media on Saturday.

On Page 21, in Para 25 of the judgement, the court says: “The material placed before us shows that the government has not disclosed pricing details, other than the basic price of the aircraft, even to Parliament, on the ground that sensitivity of pricing details could affect national security, apart from breaching the agreement between the two countries.

“The pricing details have, however, been shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee. Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before

Parliament, and is in public domain.” A furious Kharge, whose party was viciously attacked on Friday by BJP leaders, said he would ask the PAC to summon Attorney General KK Venugopal and CAG Rajiv Mehrishi and question them about when this report was tabled before the panel, and if not, why the submission was made before the top court.

“Will request all panel members to summon the AG and the CAG to ask them when the CAG report on Rafale deal was tabled in the Parliament,” Kharge said.

“When you feed wrong information in SC and get a clean chit on that then it is not right. We respect the SC but it is not a probe agency, only the JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee can investigate the Rafale deal. The government has not followed the proper procedure in court,” the Congress leader said.