SC order on Rafale vindicates Congress' stand: Manish Tewari

Hours after the Supreme Court sought pricing details of the Rafale fighter jets from the Centre, the Congress party on Wednesday said that apex court's order vindicated the party's stand on alleged irregularities in the multi-billion dollar deal.

Addressing a presser here, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari asked the central government to come clean on the pact. "We would like to ask the BJP government - What are you trying to hide? Why can't you make the Rafale pricing details public, when in the past every transaction entered into by the government with a foreign or domestic entity has been transparently put into public space," he said.

Earlier in the day, the top court sought details from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government on the pricing and strategies of the Rafale fighters jets in a sealed cover within ten days.

"The Supreme Court has made certain significant observations in Rafale deal today. Those directions which are in the form of interim orders vindicate the stand of Congress party and other patriotic forces. The court has ostensibly directed that the information in the confidential report submitted by the government in the last hearing should be made public. On pricing, which is the most significant part, the court has said that the government need to file an affidavit to claim confidentiality," Tiwari said.

He added that a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) should be constituted immediately so that "all facts will transparently come out in the public domain."

A controversy over Rafale jet deal has been on the boil over the last few months with the Congress and other opposition parties alleging irregularities in the high-profile pact signed between India and France in 2016.