Today Congress president filed a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court in the contempt of court case filed against him. On 23rd April, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi on contempt of court charges, after he had filed an affidavit responding to the case filed by BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi. The case was filed after Rahul Gandhi had said that the Supreme Court has accepted that ‘chowkidar chor hai’ because the top court had agreed to accept leaked documents in the Rafale review petition.
Although it is a new affidavit filed by Rahul Gandhi, on close examination it can be seen that he has submitted the same affidavit again that he had submitted on 22 April, only with few minor changes. The para 1 of the affidavit mentions the Supreme Court order dated 23 April, instead of 15 April order mentioned in the first affidavit.
In the para no 2, they have inserted a new para mentioning that they had submitted an affidavit on 22nd April responding to the court order dated April 15. In this new addition to the affidavit, Rahul Gandhi says that contents of the first affidavit are comprehensive and that should be read as part and parcel of the counter affidavit. It mentions that the first affidavit is included in the current one for the sake of completeness.
After that, the entire affidavit is an exact copy of the affidavit filed on 22 April, with only para numbers increasing by 1 due to the addition of above-mentioned para at no 2. The para number 19A in the first affidavit has been renumbered as 21, therefore the subsequent para numbers go up by 2 in the new affidavit.
Through this affidavit, Rahul Gandhi reiterates that he attributed the ‘chowkidar chor hai’ comment to Supreme Court in the heat of a moment without reading the exact order of the court. He says that he did not have the slightest or remotest intention, desire or even thought process, to bring the court into the political arena or bring it into disrepute or attribute to it deliberately or wilfully that which the court had not said or meant.
Rahul Gandhi says that ‘chowkidar chor hain’ is a political slogan and it unfortunately got juxtaposed and mingled with court proceedings, alleging that his political opponents are misusing his comment to suggest that he had said Supreme Court said chowkidar chor hai.
With the affidavit, Rahul Gandhi once against denies all charges made against him by the petitioner, and requests that the petition should be dismissed. He alleged that Meenakshi Lekhi is seeking to drag the court into political controversy for personal gains and political mileage.
Rahul Gandhi had clearly said that Supreme Court had said ‘chowkidar chor hai’, but now he is denying the same, and he is blaming BJP for misusing his comment. And now his second affidavit is just a copy of the first affidavit, which again show how much respect he has for the highest court of the country.
