Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, cornered by the BJP in Supreme Court over his "chowkidar" slogan, seized the moment later in the day to hit back when a fire was reported from Delhi's Shastri Bhawan. The building in the heart of the city houses several government departments, and various files are stored there.
Though there was no word about the damages, Mr Gandhi took at an immediate dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom his party accuses of corruption and crony capitalism.
"Modiji burning files is not going to save you. Your day of judgement is coming," Mr Gandhi said in a tweet.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar hit back at the Congress chief.
The Congress has repeatedly levelled corruption allegations against the government, its centrepiece being the deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
The matter is now in the Supreme Court, which is now hearing a string of petitions calling for a review of its clean chit to the government on the purchase given in December.
Earlier on Tuesday, in a related case, Mr Gandhi told the Supreme Court that he would apologise for wrongly attributing the "Chowkidar chor hai" remark to the judges who are hearing the petition.
In his affidavit, Mr Gandhi admitted that he falsely quoted the top court as "rhetorical flourish in the heat of political campaigning" without having read or analysed the order, in which the judges had said classified documents accessed by the media on the Rafale deal can be considered evidence to consider the review appeal.
The fire department said the blaze in Shastri Bhawan was a minor one that was doused within a few minutes. It broke out on the sixth floor, where scrap material was stored.
The building in the central Delhi houses the Ministries of Law, Information and Broadcasting, Corporate Affairs, Chemicals and Petrochemicals, and Human Resources Development.
"The reason for the fire is yet to be established," news agency IANS quoted a fire official as saying.
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