SC puts Rafale at a level playing field in Indian Election

A huge setback to BJP's communication strategy as SC considers ‘stolen documents’ as evidence to review the ‘clean chit’ to Modi government

While the previous verdict of the Supreme Court on Rafale deal was being projected by the ruling BJP as a clean chit, its decision on Wednesday to examine the stolen documents have put the issue at a level playing field in the ensuing general elections. This decision, issued by the same judges of the same court, has given ammo to Congress president Rahul Gandhi to substantiate his allegations and promise to order an inquiry if voted to power.

In its previous judgement on December 14, 2018, the same three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph had given a clean chit to Narendra Modi government on Rafale defence deal saying they went through the records and found nothing substantial to interfere into the matter. Besides, reviewing the highly confidential classified records of the defence deal, the judges had also summoned senior air force officials in the court. However, Congress never accepted the clean chit and came up with fresh allegations of concealing the vital documents from the scrutiny of the judges.

Wednesday's judgement of the Supreme Court to conduct hearing on the stolen documents has apparently vindicated the Congress' stand of some wrongdoing by Modi government. It would now be quite easy for Congress president Rahul Gandhi to restore the confidence of his supporters and create doubts among the voters particularly for allegedly favouring industrialist Anil Ambani. Even if the fresh review fails to make a 360-degree change in the previous verdict of the Supreme Court, it has provided a firm ground to opposition for labelling allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CJI led bench will now examine not only pricing of Rafale jets but the appointment of Anil Ambani owned company as offset partner of Dassault, the French aircraft manufacturer of Rafale.

The present setback to Union government on Rafale deal could be credited to lack of proper communication. It seems, after the clean chit, the communication strategists of the government went on in over celebration mood while the opposition was highly focused on finding ways to somehow puncture the balloon of overjoy. In their quest for a suitable platform, the opposition leaders went on to explore possibilities for some credible material suitable for a review petition or fresh hearing on the matter including reports from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). As the CAG report also could not bring anything sustainable and Central government rejected JPC, the opposition was on back foot but finally, a media house managed some classified documents.

In his first submission, the Attorney General K.K. Venugopal submitted that the papers presented by the petitioners were stolen by a newspaper but subsequently altered his view and called it photocopied without authentication that 'amount to theft'. This flawed communication was enough to create doubt. Here the government lawyers were seeking to refuse behind very archaic laws. If a document is brought in the public domain, through whatever means, it is now almost impossible to make the concerned issue immune from judicial scrutiny. The government lawyers should better focus on proving the documents futile and defending the deal through well-guarded articulations.

Besides, the opposition will never forget this opportunity to project Modi as an arrogant leader because two out of the three petitioners in the review petition – Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie; had been senior BJP leaders and Union Ministers in previous NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sinha had held foreign and finance portfolios while Shourie was disinvestment minister. In this group, only lawyer Prashant Bhushan is a non-BJP person.