Rafale Verdict: BJP moves privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha over Rafale issue

In a twist to the Rafale issue, the BJP today in the parliament has brought a privilege motion against Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The Rafale verdict by the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to the BJP government and let the Opposition hover in the back foot, although the Congress has maintained their demand of bringing a JPC.

Today, BJP MP Anurag Thakur had passed a privilege motion after passing the Transgender Bill in the Parliament. The Rafale deal row has been raging a poltical tug of war between the BJP and the Opposition parties, where the former is alleged of corruption and favoritism to the Anil Ambani led Reliance Defence.

News agency ANI tweeted saying, “BJP moves Privilege Motion in Lok Sabha against Rahul Gandhi over Rafale issue. The Motion has been moved by Anurag Thakur.”

The petitioners in the case and the Congress party have alleged that Attorney General KK Venugopal has mislead the Supreme Court and given wrong set of information on behalf of the government.

The Supreme Court in its controversial judgement on Page 21 and Para 25 said, “The pricing details [of Rafale deal] have, however, been shared with the Comptroller and Auditor General (hereinafter referred to as 'CAG'), and the report of the CAG has been examined by the Public Accounts Committee (hereafter referred to as 'PAC'). Only a redacted portion of the report was placed before the Parliament, and is in public domain.”

PAC chairman Mallikarjun Kharge had raised questions, “Where is this report of the CAG? Show it to us if it exists. I spoke to the office of the CAG, which confirmed that its report on the Rafale deal is not yet ready.”

Also read: 1984 verdict: Congress' Salman Khurshid to challenge anti-Sikh riots judgement, claims AAP leader Jarnail