The more Rahul Gandhi repeats his lies about the Rafale deal, the more he gets rebutted by the apex court of the country. The Congress president has been alleging that Modi government had sent CBI Director Alok Verma on leave because he was preparing to investigate the Rafale deal. In the petition against the government’s decision, lawyer Prashant Bhushan had made the same argument in the Supreme Court. But the today’s decision of the high powered committee to finally remove Alok Verma from the post of CBI has proved that the allegations against Verma are very serious in nature. It must be noted that Justice A K Sikri was part of the 3-member committee, other than PM Modi and Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.
According to reports, Justice Sikri said that the charges of corruption against Alok Verma were serious and required further probe. These remarks were made on the basis of CVC report on probe on charges against Verma. Although this was not a court case, a sitting Supreme Court judge making such comments is as good as a comment from the top court, as the remarks were based on a report that has been submitted to the court. CVC has been saying that there are serious allegations against the CBI director and he was not cooperating in the investigation against him. The government had sent Verma on leave on the recommendations of CVC, to ensure a fair probe.
Yesterday when the committee met, Kharge wanted to know whether Verma was probing the Rafale deal. In the dissent note that he provided today, he didn’t mention anything about it, which shows that Verma was not doing any probe on the Rafale deal, and Rahul Gandhi was lying while making the claim.
It may be noted that the supreme court had reinstated Verma on 8th January only on procedural grounds, not on basis of allegations against him or proof of any investigation on Rafale he may be conducting.
Before this, the apex court had rejected to order a probe into the Rafale deal, as Rahul Gandhi and others have been demanding. The court had said that there is no doubt in the process of placing an order for 36 Rafale jets, and said there was no proof of any commercial favouritism in the deal. The Supreme Court order had said that the perception of a few individuals can be the basis of interference in the process. Before this, the court had refused to issue a notice to the government on the Rafale petitions, and had allegations “appear to be grossly inadequate”. The court had asked the government to provide details of the Rafale deal only to satisfy itself.
The outrageous allegations Rahul Gandhi has been making against the Rafale deal has been comprehensively refuted several times. His claim that Narendra Modi has given Anil Ambani ₹30,000 crore from the deal has absolutely no basis, as facts show that Reliance, or any other Indian company, is not even involved in manufacturing the Rafale jet. The plane is being completely manufactured by Dassault in France. The Supreme Court had gone into these facts and said that it is satisfied with the offset clause in the deal.
With Justice Sikri saying that Alok Verma should be removed from the post of CBI director, it is the second time the Supreme Court judges have delivered a blow to the conspiracy theorists about the Rafale deal. Earlier the court said there is no wrongdoing in the Rafale deal, and now a judge of the court has indicated CBI was not investigating the Rafale deal, which anyway it can’t do without the sanction of the central government or a court.
