Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday lashed out at the Congress following the Supreme Court verdict in the Rafale deal case.
Hours after the apex court gave a clean chit to the deal, Jaitley, with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, held a press conference in which he said that the final price of the aircraft was significantly lower than what was negotiated in UPA era.
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“Rafale Deal protected both security and commercial interest of India. Security interest because it increases combat ability of India, commercial interest because the final price was significantly lower both for aircraft and weaponised aircraft than what was negotiated in 2007 and 2012,” said Jaitley.
Commenting on the Congress party’s demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the deal, Jaitley said that such an investigation can be done only by a judicial body.
“At times when they come together, people get divided as per their party line. Investigations and reviews of this kind can’t be done when allegations are there by a body capable of partisan divisions; it has to be done by a judicial body,” he said.
Accusing Congress president Rahul Gandhi of spreading falsehood, Jaitley said that all figures given by the 48-year-old were incorrect.
“All the figures by the government are correct and all the figures by Mr Rahul Gandhi are false and I have justified it,” he said.
“The truth has only one version and falsehood has many. That is why Mr Rahul Gandhi quoted several figures,” said Jaitley, adding, “Falsehood has a very short life. In this case, it was a few months. Falsehood lowers the credibility of its creator.”
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi ismissed all the petitions, and said no Rafale probe was required.
The petitions seeking probe into the deal were filed by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, advocates M.L.Sharma and Vineet Dhanda, and AAP lawmaker in Parliament Sanjay Singh.
Junking the petitions the bench said that there was “nothing questionable” in the decision-making process and the bench was not competent to go into the question of pricing and the choice of offset partner by Rafale manufacturer Dassault.
Read More | ‘Not for court to scrutinise’: What the Supreme Court said in Rafale deal verdict
Following the verdict, the Congress reiterated its demand for the JPC. The party also launched a change.org petition urging people to express their support to the call for a JPC probe.
“The Supreme Court has clearly stated that it is outside their jurisdiction to probe into the #RafaleDeal. We continue our demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the #RafaleScam. Sign this petition to demand transparency,” wrote the Congress on its official Twitter handle while sharing the petition.
Read More | Congress reiterates demand for JPC probe into Rafale deal
Speaking to reporters after the judgement, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said his party was never of the view that decisions on sensitive defence contracts can be decided by the Supreme Court.
“The verdict of the Supreme Court today is a validation of what the Congress party stated months ago – that SC is not the forum to decide such sensitive defence contracts,” he said.
