Arun Jaitley accused Congress of manufacturing lies about the Rafale judgement. (File)
Ruling out referring the Rafale deal to a parliamentary panel, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched a blistering attack on the Congress, calling it and said the Comptroller and Auditor General's view of the deal is not relevant after the Supreme Court's clean chit.
With the first four days of winter session of Parliament washed out over various protests, Mr Jaitley said the opposition will prefer disruptions over discussion on Rafale during the remainder of the session. The Congress, not a petitioner before the top court, wants the Rafale deal to be referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to go into the price arrived at by the BJP government versus the one negotiated by the UPA.
"After the Supreme Court has spoken the last word, it gets legitimacy. A political body can never come to a finding contrary to what the Court has said," Mr Jaitley wrote in a Facebook blog, titled 'Rafale - Lies, Shortlived lies and now further lies?'
On the Congress claiming 'ambiguity' in the Supreme Court judgment, Mr Jaitley said defence transactions go to the CAG for an audit review, which then are referred to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). "This was factually and accurately stated by the Government before the Court. The audit review of Rafale is pending before the CAG. All facts are shared with it. When its report is out, it will go to the PAC."
"The CAG review is not relevant to the final findings on procedure, pricing and offset suppliers. But bad losers never accept the truth. Having failed in multiple lies they have now started an innuendo about the Judgement," he said. Mr Jaitley said Congress, having failed in their initial falsehood, is now "manufacturing further lies about the Judgement."
"On facts it lied. The judgement of the Supreme Court conclusively establishes the Congress party's vulnerabilities in a discussion on defence transactions. It will be a great opportunity to remind the nation of the legacy of the Congress Party and its defence acquisitions - a great opportunity indeed for some of us to speak," he wrote.
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