Rahul ‘regrets’ linking ‘chor’ jibe at PM with SC’s order on Rafale

NEW DELHI: Faced with a petition accusing him of contempt of court, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Monday expressed regret before the Supreme Court for unintentionally linking the SC’s April 10 order on petitions seeking review of the Rafale verdict to his “chowkidar chor hai” political campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Saying that his remarks in Hindi were made “in a rhetorical flourish in the heat of the moment,” the Congress leader undertook never to link his political views to the court’s orders in future, in what is seen as an embarrassing submission in the midst of the Lok Sabha elections.

However, he carefully avoided the word ‘apology’ while responding to BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi’s petition, which had sought initiation of contempt proceedings against him for distorting the SC’s April 10 order allowing a review of its Rafale order.

BJP was quick to pick on the Congress president’s submission to demand an apology. “Possibly, this is a first-of-its-kind when the national president of a national party goes before the Supreme Court and admits to have lied,” BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said.

Rahul Gandhi expressed regret on Monday before the Supreme Court for linking its order on Rafale to his “chowkidar chor hai” political campaign against PM Narendra Modi.

On April 10, the apex court had rejected the Centre’s objection to the admissibility as evidence of documents on the Rafale deal clandestinely obtained from the defence ministry while hearing petitions seeking review of its order ruling out foul play in the procurement of French fighter jets.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi had accused Rahul of distorting the court order to pass it off as a finding that the PM had indulged in corruption in the Rafale deal and that he gave Rs 30,000 crore to industrialist Anil Ambani from the deal.

The Congress president did not deny making the statements. In his 110-page reply affidavit, settled by senior advocate A M Singhvi and filed by advocate Sunil Fernandes, he explained his statements in Hindi were made “in a rhetorical flourish in the heat of the moment”. He said while making these statements, he did not have a copy of the SC order and he had relied on “electronic and social media reportage and the version of workers and activists surrounding him”.

“On April 10, at the time of and in my statement, the issues relating to court proceedings unfortunately got juxtaposed and mingled with a political slogan ‘chowkidar chor hai’ being used extensively by Congress party and myself for the last several months, which is a matter of intense and frenzied public debate during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

Rahul said it was clear and obvious to him that “no court, much less the apex court, would adopt, endorse or uphold a political slogan like above (chowkidar chor hai). It is unfortunate that this slogan got intermingled with my comments on and references to SC’s April 10 order”.

The 48-year-old leader told the SC that it was his as well his party’s stand that the Rafale deal was a tainted transaction, a gross and brazen abuse of executive power and a leading example of corruption of the BJP government led by Modi, which deserved to be investigated thoroughly by a Joint Parliamentary Committee and those accused be proceeded against.

“My statement was made in the heat of political campaigning. It has been used (and misused) by my political opponents to project that I had deliberately and intentionally suggested that this court had said ‘chowkidar chor hai’. Nothing could be further from my mind,” he said.

“It is also clear that no court would ever do that and hence the unfortunate references (for which I express regret) to the court order and to the political slogan in juxtaposition in the same breath in the heat of political campaigning ought not to be construed as suggesting that the court had given any finding or conclusion on that issue,” the Congress president said.

“As a responsible political and public figure as also the head of a 130-year-old political party, I do understand that the said juxtaposition of the political and legal stands has been fully clarified by the SC’s April 15 order, to which I humbly bow down,” he added.

The SC on April 15, while dealing with Lekhi’s petition, had said, “We make it clear that this court had no occasion to record any view or finding or make any observation as allegedly attributed to the court by Rahul Gandhi as much as what was decided by this court was a purely legal question of admissibility of certain documents to which objections were raised by the attorney general. Having clarified the matter, we deem it proper to ask Rahul Gandhi for his explanation which will be laid before us on or before April 22.”

The court had also said, “We further observe that no views, observations or findings should be attributed to the court in political address to the media and in public speeches, unless such views, observations or findings are recorded by the court.”

Though he requested the SC to impose cost on Lekhi for dragging the SC into a political thicket, Rahul gave an undertaking, as per the April 15 order, that he “will not attribute any views, observations or findings to the SC in his political addresses to the media and in public speeches, unless such views, observations or findings are recorded by this court”.