Striking a discordant note from the Congress stand on the verdict pronounced by the Supreme Court on the Rafale fighter aircraft deal, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that people should accept the decision of the country’s top most court and not call for a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee).
The Supreme Court’s three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India on Friday had dismissed several public interest litigation (PIL) petitions seeking investigation into the Rafale fighter aircraft deal.
Akhilesh’s estranged uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav is also on the same page with his nephew on this issue. “The Supreme Court verdict on Rafale deal has settled the issue and all concerned should respect the decision of the apex court,” he said in Kanpur on Saturday.
Speaking to the media a day after the apex court found no irregularities in the Rafale deal, Akhilesh said, “The Supreme Court is trusted by the people. It is supreme. We had demanded a JPC before the Supreme Court gave its verdict. Now that the apex court has given its judgement, we should go by what they (the judges) have said.”
Akhilesh made these observations after flagging off the Samajwadi Vision and Vikas Padyatra from the SP state office here on Saturday.
“There is no other court in the country other than the Supreme Court that people have complete faith on... I feel that after the apex court’s ruling, if there is anything to be talked about Rafale, if fingers can still be raised, people can go back to it (apex court). The Supreme Court is supreme,” Yadav said amid high voltage row after Bharatiya Janata Party stepped up attack on Congress president Rahul Gandhi for politicising the defence deal.
“During a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in September, we did say there should be a JPC probe. But now that the Supreme Court’s ruling has come, the apex court has examined all issues and if in future too anybody has anything to speak on Rafale, anyone can knock the doors of the Supreme Court,” the Samajwadi Party chief said.
In the meantime, the Congress has said that the government has misled the Supreme Court on Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report vis-à-vis Rafale deal.
Yadav said his party had made the demand for JPC when the Supreme Court was not seized of the matter.
Despite the three-judge bench of Supreme Court headed by CJI Ranjan Gogoi rejecting all the petitions requesting a court-monitored probe into the Rafale deal, the Congress, led by its president Rahul Gandhi, has not accepted the verdict. In its defence, the party has stated that the Narendra Modi government had lied in the court and had tried to mislead the bench by giving false details.
It was followed by similar comments by PAC (Public Accounts Committee) chief and Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, who said on Saturday that he and members of PAC had no knowledge about the CAG report. He charged the government of misleading the Supreme Court that the CAG report was presented in Parliament and the PAC had probed it.
