Cong campaign aimed to help Rafale competitor: Law Minister

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 14

Launching a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale fighter jet deal, the BJP today asked the senior Congress leader and his party to apologise to the nation for “misleading the nation and telling lies”.

Addressing the mediapersons here, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that a Rafale competitor was behind the Congress campaign. Questioning Gandhi on whose behest he ran it, Prasad claimed the campaign was “shrouded in deeply suspicious circumstances”.

Prasad said Rahul deliberately misquoted the SC and carried out a campaign against India’s honest Prime Minister and degraded the country in the world.... You may have apologised to the Supreme Court to save yourself from contempt proceedings, but will you be able to look into the eyes of the people for your shameful conduct? For this, you need to apologise to the nation,” he said.

BJP president and Home Minister Amit Shah termed the verdict “a befitting reply to the Congress and its leaders who carried out a malicious and baseless” campaign against the BJP government.

Shah said the judgment had proved that Parliament disruption over the Rafale deal was a “sham”. He said the order had yet again reaffirmed the Narendra Modi government’s credentials as “transparent and corruption-free”. “After today’s rebuke from the SC, the Congress and its leaders, for whom politics is above national interest, must apologise to the nation,” said Shah.

Joining Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also said the allegations of corruption were aimed at maligning the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded an apology from the party.