Rahul Gandhi must apologise for 'shameful' statements on Rafale: BJP

Ravi Shankar Prasad lashes out at Opposition party after top court refuses CBI probe of Rafale deal.

The BJP on Thursday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to apologise for his "shameful" statements about the Rafale fighter jet deal, saying the Supreme Court’s judgment had absolved the government.

"It is recognition of the honest decision making process of the Narendra Modi government...Satayamav Jayete. The Congress party must apologise and Rahul Gandhi in particular must apologise to the country," said BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Delhi after the court judgment.

The Supreme Court's order on the Rafale deal was a victory of the country's national security, he said. "People having saga of corruption from Jeep scandal to Bofors to Submarine to AugustaWestland, where undertaking a political programme masquerading at the quest of justice.

"Raising false allegations on the Rafale deal was the lowest point of political discourse that he stooped to the shameful extent of misquoting the supreme court deliberately," Prasad said.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petitions against its verdict in the Rafale deal on grounds that they lacked merit, reiterating its clean chit to the Modi government in the fighter jet agreement with French firm Dassault Aviation.

The top court also closed the contempt plea against Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the apex court his "chowkidar chor hai" remark in the Rafale case against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The court said the remarks made by Gandhi were far from true and he should have refrained from those and could have been careful.