Rahul's regret in Supreme Court further erodes his credibility: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Monday said Rahul Gandhi has very low credibility which has been eroded further with the Congress president expressing regret in the Supreme Court over his statement in connection with the Rafale judgment.

Gandhi, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court Monday said, his April 10 statement with regard to Rafale was "purely political" and was made to counter the "misinformation campaign" being led by senior BJP functionaries as well as the government that the December 14 last year judgment gave a "clean chit" to the Modi government on the Rafale deal.

The Congress president was responding to a Court notice on a petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi alleging that Gandhi has attributed his personal remarks to the top court and tried to create prejudice.

Jaitley, in a video message said, Gandhi has a "very low level of credibility which has been eroded even further" by his expression of "regret" in the Supreme Court.

"He (Gandhi) had no qualms in taking liberty with the truth. The reality now is he has had to express regret. While I don't wish to comment on the matter pending before the Court, it's for the Court to take a view, when public leaders express regret over their public statement that we lied to the people, it's a issue of credibility of such leaders," Jaitley said.

Jaitley said that when senior leaders like the president of the Indian National Congress speak, ordinarily their words must carry credibility.

"There is a sanctity to every word that they speak. But of late, he has made a daily routine of making recklessly false statements. He was wrong on several counts," he added.

In his 26-page affidavit, Gandhi said: "My statement was made in the heat of political campaigning. It has been used (and misused) by my political opponents to project that I had deliberately and intentionally suggested that this Court had said 'Chowkidar Chor Hai'. Nothing could be farther from my mind.

"It is also clear that no court would ever do that and hence the unfortunate references (for which I express regret) to the court order and to the political slogan in juxtaposition the same breath in the heat of political campaigning ought not to be construed as suggesting that the court had given any finding or conclusion on that issue.