Vijay Goel seeks Rahul's apology on Rafale deal

Congress president Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the Army and Indian citizens for alleging irregularities in Rafale deal after the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the Central government, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said on Saturday.

"The false allegations of the Congress on Rafale deal have been denied by the apex court. As we are ready to talk on Rafale deal in the Parliament, and the Supreme Court has cleared that government played no role in deciding partners for the deals and also dismissed all petitions seeking court-monitored probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal, there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process in the deal," Vijay Goel stated.

"Thus, the Congress should apologise before the Army and the people of the country. And they should stop at least now asking for the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe," he said.

"Earlier, the Congress claimed that electronic voting machines (EVMs) were tampered and now they are saying the Apex Court's judgment is tampered. If this judgment would've come earlier, the election results in five states would have been different," he added.

It is worth mentioning that a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Friday said that there was no need to conduct an investigation into the details of Rafale pricing. "We are satisfied that there is no occasion to doubt the process. Joint exercises have taken place and there is no element of financial benefits. Detailed scrutiny of Rafale deal is not required," said Justice Gogoi.

After the apex court's decision, Union Minister for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan told ANI: "If the Congress president Rahul Gandhi has some morals, then he must apologise to the nation."

Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje took to the Twitter and said that the apex court's decision has exposed the lies of the Congress party. "Congress party for the sake of gain in elections has not only called an honest leader a thief but even misled the people of the country. If the party is left with some ethics, then it should immediately apologise," tweeted Raje in Hindi.