Rahul Gandhi Cheers Top Court's Rafale Order, Says "Day Of Celebration"

Congress President Rahul Gandhi interpreted the Supreme Court order as a huge victory.

Hours after the Supreme Court rejected the Centre's stand and ruled that classified documents accessed by the media can be used as evidence to consider requests to reexamine the Rafale jet deal, Rahul Gandhi crowed that his words had been vindicated.

The Supreme Court said it will examine the secret documents while considering requests for a review of its own order in December giving the government a clean chit on the deal.

The Congress president, who has relentlessly targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi with allegations of corruption and crony capitalism in the deal for 36 Rafale jets from France, interpreted the court order as a huge victory.

"I want to thank the Supreme Court. The entire country is saying that Chowkidar has committed theft. It is a day of celebration that the Supreme Court has talked about justice," Rahul Gandhi said in his constituency Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, where he filed his nomination papers to contest for the fourth time.

"Some days ago, the PM said in an interview that the Supreme Court had given a clean chit. Today the Supreme Court made it clear that it suspects there is corruption involved. I have been saying that Narendra Modi and Anil Ambani need to be investigated. I am very happy that what I have been saying for months, that PM Modi has stolen Indian Air Force's funds and given Anil Ambani 30,000 crores, Supreme Court has accepted it and will investigate it," Rahul Gandhi said.

Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders allege that PM Modi signed a not so lucrative deal for Rafale jets to help Anil Ambani's inexperienced defence firm bag an offset contract from jet-maker Dassault.

In December, the Supreme Court had dismissed petitions seeking an investigation saying there was no reason to doubt the decision-making process of the government.

Later, The Hindu newspaper came out with a series of reports based on classified government documents, which indicated that the ministry had objected to "parallel negotiations" for the jets by the Prime Minister's Office and that the deal became more expensive for India because of France's refusal to provide bank guarantees.

"I directly challenge Narendra Modi to a debate on corruption. Supreme Court has said that you did corruption. Narendra Modi, come face me and let's debate nicely on Rafale, corruption and demonetization," the Congress chief said.

Disclaimer: NDTV has been sued for 10,000 crores by Anil Ambani's Reliance Group for its coverage of the Rafale deal