'Rahul Gandhi must apologise,' says BJP after SC's Rafale verdict

The BJP on Thursday reacted with jubilation to the Supreme Court's decision to reject review petitions for probing the Rafale deal, saying truth has triumphed and that it is a huge victory for the Modi government.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that Rahul Gandhi had lied in Parliament that French President Emmanuel Macron had allowed him to disclose details of the deal. “Mr Macron said that he hadn’t said anything like that and Mr Gandhi was lying,” he added.

Talking about the Supreme Court accepting his apology, Prasad said the court has time and again said that there is no doubt about the qualities of the Rafale fighter jets. “Rahul Gandhi quoted that the Supreme Court had said that PM Modi is a thief. There’s no bigger lie than this, and today, it was proven in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court's decision was unanimous,” Ravi Shankar Prasad added.

In a press conference soon after the verdict, Union minister also demanded an from Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party.

“The verdict on Rafale is the victory of truth, India’s security and recognition of the honest decision making process of the Modi government,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad

Commenting on Supreme Court’s Rafale verdict, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said: “I welcome this judgement by Supreme Court and it is a vindication of our government’s stand. The transparency of our government’s decision making has been given an approval by Supreme Court.”

"Truth triumphs. Truth can be bothered but not defeated," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said. The Supreme Court on Thursday gave a clean chit to the Narendra Modi government in the Rafale fighter jets deal case, saying review petitions were without merit.

Hitting hard at Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the government on the Rafale deal, BJP working president J P Nadda said the Congress leader had tried to mislead the country on the issue and should now apologise.

Asserting that truth has prevailed, Nadda said, "From road to Parliament, Rahul Gandhi and his party tried hard to mislead the country on this issue but truth prevailed. I wish Rahul Gandhi would be in country and should apologise to nation."

BJP leaders also took a dig at the former Congress president after the apex court asked him to be careful in future while closing a plea for contempt case against him for wrongly attributing certain comments on the Rafale deal to it.

The court rejected pleas which had sought re-examination of the December 14, 2018 verdict which said there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets.

Party leaders also took a dig at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the apex court asked him to be careful in future while closing a plea for contempt case against him for wrongly attributing certain comments on the Rafale deal to it. "SC rejects review petitions on Rafale deal & raps Rahul Gandhi & asks him to be careful in future. Huge victory for Narendra Modi-led government," BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh tweeted.

The Supreme Court also closed the contempt plea against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the apex court his "chowkidar chor hai" remark in the Rafale case against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The court said the remarks made by Gandhi were far from true and he should have refrained from those and could have been careful.