The Supreme Court's decision to hear the review pleas against its ruling on the Rafale deal would put to rest the controversy, and the Centre has no problem with it as its conscience is clear, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Piyush Goyal said.
Piyush Goyal
Chennai:
Addressing a press conference here, Goyal, who is BJP's Tamil Nadu in-charge said: ".. We are happy that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the matter so that once and for all the controversy can be settled and put to rest."
In a setback to the Centre, the Supreme Court had Wednesday allowed leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgement and dismissed the government's preliminary objections claiming "privilege" over them.
Goyal said the government had taken the stand that the documents cited by the review petitioners should not be considered because they were leaked, but had no problem with the court's decision.
"... our conscience is clear, our work is honest. We have absolutely no problem. Any documents can be relied upon as per the order of the Supreme Court and we welcome the fact that Supreme Court is going to hear it."
To a query on the construction of Ram temple, he said the BJP was committed to building it.
"It must be constructed at the birthplace of Lord Ram just like we have the pride for all our tall leaders of Tamil Nadu. I believe there must be a pride in the birthplace of Lord Ram also. We are committed to it," he said.
Underlining the need to construct the temple in a constitutional manner, he alleged the Congress was putting obstacles in resolving the issue.
"The people of India are noting this. Congress leaders go to temples as political tourists before the election, whereas we are committed to a Ram Temple in Ayodhya," he added.
On Superstar Rajinikanth hailing BJP's proposal to interlink rivers, Goyal said, "I would like to thank him for having welcomed the initiative of interlinking of rivers as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi".
"It has been long pending demand that Rajinikanth ji has been raising for the welfare of farmers and people of Tamil Nadu. I welcome his comments," he said.
Goyal said the NDA and the BJP were committed to setting up an authority that would speedily implement the inter-linking of rivers which was mooted by former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee when he was in power.
Targetting the Congress over the issue, he said, for 10 years between 2004 and 2014, the national party and DMK were in power but did nothing.
The Railway Minister slammed Congress President Rahul Gandhi over his dig at the 'Make in India' programme after Vande Bharat train, the fastest in the country, had experienced trouble during its initial run in February last.
"Now, we are planning to make more than 100 train sets which would provide jobs to lakhs of people," he said.
On the allegations made by opposition parties that the Income Tax and Election Commission target them during the run-up to polls, he said the Congress and DMK were "corrupt"
parties and the whole world knew "what kind of corruption is stumbling out of their closet."
"Government is not targeting anybody. Investigation agencies or the EC are both independent," he said.