NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday demanded perjury and contempt of court action against the central government for making a false and misleading submission in the Supreme Court over the Rafale deal.
On the other hand, having hit out at the Congress for what it called, a smear campaign against the government built around falsehoods, the BJP is set to publicise the clean chit from the court.
The Rafale issue is likely to disrupt the Parliament this week as well, as the opposition has decided to corner the government in both Houses. The CPI (M) and RJD have already announced that they will give privilege notices against Attorney General K K Venugopal on the issue.
To counter the opposition’s Rafale storm, the BJP, on Monday, will hold 70 press conferences across the country over the apex court judgment claiming there is no reason to cast aspersions on the decision marking process for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
In the eye of storm is paragraph 25 of the judgment by CJI Ranjan Gogoi-led bench, saying “The pricing details have, however, been shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the CAG report has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before Parliament and is in public domain.”
The Congress Sunday said the SC judgment be recalled and appealed to the apex court not to entertain the Centre’s rectification on CAG report.
The Centre submitted an application on Saturday saying the error occurred on account of misinterpretation by the SC. The Centre said “is” was interpreted as “has been” at one place and as “was” in another.
Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said, “The Supreme Court judgment is shocking in terms of having factual inaccuracies that are a result of false and misleading submissions made by the government.”
An eye for an eye over fighter jet deal
The Rafale issue is likely to disrupt the Parliament this week as well, as leading opposition players have decided to corner the BJP-led NDA government in both Houses.
The CPI (M) and RJD have already announced that they will give privilege notices against Attorney General K K Venugopal on the issue.
The BJP will hold 70 press conferences across he country to counter the Opposition’s narrative.