BJP on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court's decision to dismiss the review petitions in Rafale case and sought apology from Congress and Rahul Gandhi saying that the verdict is the victory of truth, India's security and recognition of honest decision-making process of the Modi government.
"Today's decision of the Supreme court rejecting the review of the Rafale decision is the victory of truth, India's security and recognition of honest decision-making process of Modi government. Satyadev Jayate. Congress and Rahul Gandhi must apologise to the nation," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.
"Rahul Gandhi has to apologise. You lost in the Supreme Court in the first round then people defeated you in elections. Today, the Supreme Court dismissed the review petitions of people who were fighting on your behalf as a proxy," he said.
Prasad also hit out at Gandhi for allegedly calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a 'thief' and underlined that the Supreme Court accepted his apology.
"Rahul Gandhi quoted that the Supreme Court had said that PM Modi is a thief. There is no bigger lie than this, and today, it was proven in the Supreme Court. The apex court's decision today was unanimous," he said.
"The Supreme Court accepted his apology and asked Gandhi to be more careful. It has time and again said that there is no doubt about the qualities of the Rafale fighter jets," the Union Minister said.
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He also claimed that the Congress leader had also said that former French President Francois Hollande had called PM Modi a thief.
"Hollande clarified and said this is a lie out in public. The decisions of offsets are taken by Dassault, and not by the President. Gandhi also lied in the Parliament that the current President of France, Emmanuel Macron, had allowed him to disclose details of the deal. Macron said that he had not said anything like that and Gandhi was lying," Prasad.
The Union Minister further taking a jibe at Gandhi and said: "On April 29, 2018, he said that the cost of Rafale was 700 crores. In July 2018, it costed Rs 520 crores. On August 10, 2018, he tagged it at Rs 540 crores. On Aug 11, it was changed to Rs 520 crores again. You can see how the cost has fluctuated in his rallies. At one place, he even said that the cost was Rs 570!"
"The whole campaign of malign is shrouded in deeply suspicious circumstances. Congress has a chequered history of taking a sub-contract in a defence contract," he said.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petitions challenging its verdict in the Rafale case passed on December 14, 2018, upholding the 36 Rafale jets deal.
A three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph passed the order on a batch of petitions seeking review of its December 14, 2018 verdict which had upheld purchase of 36 Rafale jets by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government from France.
Meanwhile, the apex court closed the contempt petition filed by BJP lawmaker Meenakshi Lekhi against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks.
The Supreme Court accepted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's apology for wrongly attributing his infamous "chowkidar chor hai" remark in Rafale case to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opined that a person holding a place of importance in political spectrum should have been more careful.
"Rahul Gandhi needs to be more careful in the future. It was unfortunate," a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said in their verdict.
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