Rahul must apologise for "false" charges on Rafale: BJP MP

In a sharp attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi, BJP MP Poonam Mahajan Monday accused him of making a desperate bid to clean the Bofors scam's "stains" on his party and family by levelling "false" charges in the Rafale jet deal.

She said Gandhi should apologise to the Supreme Court and the country's people over the "false allegations" he made pertaining to the French aircraft deal, or else the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP's youth wing, will agitate outside the Congress' offices across the nation.

"We are reaching out to people to let the countrymen know that there is an attempt on part of Gandhi to mislead the country and how by levelling false allegations, how the defence secrets are being exposed and how the Congress is politicising the issue," told reporters here.

"According to us, Gandhi is trying to clean the Bofors scam's 'kalank' (stain) on his party and family...and while doing this there is a desperate attempt on his part to create political havoc, and he is doing it by levelling false allegations in the Rafale deal," Mahajan alleged.

Gandhi had been alleging wrongdoings in the Rafale deal. "But now, the Supreme court gave its verdict on Friday. Will Gandhi now apologise to the court and the country?" she sought to know.

The BJYM chief was speaking as part of the BJP's move to hold pressers in 70 cities across the country on Monday to attack the opposition party against the backdrop of the Supreme Court's verdict on the controversial Rafale jet deal.

The SC had on Friday said there is no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France, and dismissed all the petitions seeking an investigation into alleged irregularities in the Rs 58,000 crore deal.

There was no substantial evidence of commercial favouritism to any private entity, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said on the issue of an offset partner in its ruling on a batch of petitions.

Notwithstanding the SC verdict, Rahul Gandhi had said there was massive corruption in the contract and wondered why the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report "cited by the Supreme Court" on it had not yet been shared with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.

Gandhi had also reiterated the Congress' demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the fighter jet deal and claimed that if it was conducted, names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and businessman Anil Ambani will come to the fore.

The Congress has repeatedly criticised the deal for the 36 Rafale jets, alleging that the government was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government.

However, both government and Anil Ambani's Reliance Group have rejected Gandhi's allegations of any wrongdoing.