National security should never be politicised: Rajnath after Rafale verdict

The Supreme Court's ruling on the Rafale deal is a judgement on the NDA government's transparency in decision making, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Thursday, asserting that issues pertaining to national security should never be politicised.

In a separate statement, the defence ministry in New Delhi said the verdict brought to a close an exercise of "vilification" of the military acquisition process that impacted the morale of the armed forces.

Speaking after a military event here, Singh slammed the Congress for levelling baseless allegations in the deal and said the aim was to malign the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the party should apologise.

"I wholeheartedly welcome the Supreme Court's categorical dismissal of the review petitions in the Rafale case and with this pronouncement the government stands vindicated. The verdict is also a judgement on our government's transparency in decision making," he said.

The Supreme Court earlier refused to review its earlier decision of giving a clean chit to the government while rejecting pleas for registration of an FIR by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the deal.

In its order on December 14, 2018, the apex court had said that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement relating to the Rafale jets.

"The purchase of Rafale jets was done in a completely transparent manner, keeping in mind the urgency to update and upgrade India's defence preparedness," Singh said.

He said the allegations made by certain political parties and their leaders in Rafale jet purchase were "extremely unfortunate, unwarranted and laced with malicious intent".

"The verdict has rightly cautioned such politicians to be careful while making wild allegations. The allegation of corruption in Rafale deal was nothing but an attempt to malign the clean and honest image of PM Modi and his government," he said.

"The people of India will not forgive the opponents for their slanderous campaign and calumny and they should apologise for misleading the people," Singh added.

Singh said people of India will not forgive the Congress for its "slanderous" campaign and that the party should apologise for misleading the people.

He was speaking after attending the Maitree Diwas celebrations at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

Maitree Diwas (Civil-Military Friendship Day) will be celebrated for two days at Gyalwa Tsangyang Gyatso High Altitude Stadium in Tawang.

He said the purchase of Rafale jets was done in a completely transparent manner, keeping in mind the urgency to update and upgrade India's defence preparedness.

"The issues pertaining to defence preparedness and national security should never be politicised. I wholeheartedly welcome the Supreme Court's categorical dismissal of the review petitions in the Rafale case and with this pronouncement the NDA government stands vindicated. The SC verdict is also a judgement on our government's transparency in decision making," he said.

Singh also said that the "apshabd" (abuses) used against the PM hurt the sentiments of the people of the country.

"Any PM - belonging to any party - is not a person but an institution. Some people tried their level best to defame this institution too. I would like to say, especially to Congress persons, that they tried to defame the prime minister on this matter. They have used apshabd.

"I would say that whatever kind of apshabd that were used against prime minister must have hurt people who believe in healthy democracy," he said.

India had signed an inter-governmental agreement with France in September 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets. The first batch of four Rafale jets will arrive in India by May 2020.

The Congress raised several questions about the deal, including on rates of the aircraft, and alleged corruption but the government has rejected the charges.

The Rafale jets will come with various India-specific modifications, including Israeli helmet-mounted displays, radar warning receivers, low band jammers, 10-hour flight data recording, infra-red search and tracking systems among others.

According to the deal, the delivery of the jets was to be completed in 67 months from the date the contract was signed.