Sitharaman slams Rahul, says he doesn't respect institutions

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Thursday slammed Congress chief Rahul Gandhi over his continuous use of "chowkidar chor hai" slogan while targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale deal.

Sitharaman also accused Gandhi of disrespecting institutions such the Supreme Court and CAG, whose verdict and report in the Rafale deal, respectively, she added, have showed there was no issue for the Congress to rake up.

The BJP leader slammed Gandhi for "brazenly" attributing the "chowkidar chor hai" (the watchman is a thief) slogan to the apex court after it allowed earlier this month leaked documents to be relied upon by petitioners seeking review of its Rafale judgement.

On April 22, Gandhi had expressed regret in the Supreme Court over his remark in connection with the Rafale judgement, which the apex court had said, was "incorrectly attributed" to it.

The SC had directed Gandhi to give his explanation on April 22 on a petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi seeking criminal contempt action against him for his remark.

"It was a limited matter where they (the Supreme Court) wanted the papers to be placed (before it), to which we took a position that they were illegally obtained from the (defence) ministry," Sitharaman said.

"Yet, he brazenly put words in the court's mouth, saying it endorsed the 'chowkidar chor hai' slogan," Sitharaman told reporters here.

The minister alleged the Congress president had no respect for institutions.

"Nothing deters him, he has no respect for any of the institutions. It is shame the president of the opposition party continues with his brazen attempt to bring disrepute to the institutions," Sitharaman added.

She replied in the negative when a journalist asked if BJP's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's controversial "curse" remark about slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare will boomerang on the saffron outfit politically.

"The party has already explained about it...She (Thakur) spoke based on her personal experience. Later, she also retracted it because she respected the martyr who took bullets of terrorists," Sitharaman said.

Thakur had last Friday said Karkare died during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks because she had "cursed" him for "treating her badly" while she was in custody in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast case.