Senior CPI leader D Raja Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court order allowing leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgment, saying the order was a "setback" for the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
The CPI national secretary said the "truth has to be found out now."
Hitting out at the NDA government, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury claimed it was clear that the government had concealed many truths as far as the deal was concerned.
"This (apex court order) the government of India, the Modi Government, hoped will not happen, Yechury told reporters at Coimbatore.
Quoting Modi's words that results of Balakot air strike could have been different if the Indian Air Force had the Rafale fighter jets, Yechury asked what was the reason for it, "because you (Modi) renegotiated the deal, by overriding officials and multi-ministerial committees."
"There is a very, very big scam involved in the deal. Why did you renegotiate the deal Mr Modi, because there was a massive degree of corruption in this deal," he said.
The CPI-M wanted a speedy hearing of the case even as the first phase of Lok Sabha election is beginning tomorrow, he said.
Modi had recently hit out at the opposition for doubting the armed forces on the anti-terror air strike in Pakistan and said the country was feeling the absence of Rafale fighter jets as the results could have been different if India had these aircraft.
A day ahead of the first phase of the Lok Sabha election, the apex court Wednesday allowed leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgment and dismissed the government's preliminary objections claiming "privilege" over them.
"It is a setback and a slap in the face for the government. The court has rejected the government's argument. And now what is the answer from Mr (Narendra) Modi and Mr Arun Jaitley who were referring to Supreme Court all the time on the clean chit," Raja told PTI.
"The truth has to be found out," he added.
The Centre had submitted that privileged documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018 judgment of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
The apex court said it will go ahead with the hearing on the review petition on the basis of new documents referred by petitioners.
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