With the ongoing furore on Sam Pitroda’s ‘What happened in 1984, happened’ remark the Congress party has distanced itself saying the party continues ti support the quest for justice for the 1984 riot victims. Issuing an official statement, it said that any remark made by an individual including Sam Pitroda was not the opinion of the Congress party.
The statement read that the Congress believes justice should be done to the 1984 riots victims as also to 2002 Gujarat riots victims. It also read that the violence of any kind against any person or a group of people based on their caste, colour, region or religion is condemnable. The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict on petitions that challenged its December 14 judgement against the investigation into the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. In a joint affidavit filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan, it was stated that the Centre misled the court to get a favourable response. The petitioners also said that the December 14 judgement was obtained through multiple falsehoods and suppression of material and relevant information.
Speaking for the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal cited a CAG report saying India got Rafale at a cheaper price. He said if the court would decide its verdict on the basis computation of the prices and that if it would also fix the prices of aircraft and avionics. Venugopal said that Rafale wasn’t being procured for self-interest but for national security.
Mocking petitioners, he said that no court in the world would examine a defence deal on these kinds of arguments. He said that pricing Rafale deal was covered under Article 10 of inter-government agreement and hence should not have been discussed in public domain. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had also refrained from hearing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh’s petition in the Rafale case.
