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Journalism of Courage
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was officially disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP on Friday, a day after conviction by a Surat court on defamation charges, was previously at the centre of a contempt suit for his comments on a Supreme Court order in the Rafale case. He made the comments just days before the Karnataka speech over which he has been convicted.
On Thursday, the prosecutor mentioned the Supreme Court case at the hearing in the Surat court, and said Rahul had continued with his remarks despite apologising to the apex court over the contempt petition.
On April 10, 2019, the Court allowed three documents relied upon by petitioners to seek a review of its December 14, 2018, judgment in the Rafale aircraft deal matter. The Court thus dismissed the Centre’s preliminary objection on the maintainability of the review petitions and claim of privilege over these documents.
Welcoming this move the same day at a political rally in Amethi, before he filed his nomination there, Rahul said: “Bahut khushi ho rahi hai ki jo main mahino se keh raha hun ki Hindustan ke Pradhan Mantri ne Air Force ka paisa chori kar ke Anil Ambani ji ko diya hai, us baat ko aaj SC ne maan liya hai (I am happy that what I have been saying for months, that India’s Prime Minister stole money from the Air Force and gave it to Anil Ambani, the SC has validated that point today).”
On April 12, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against Rahul for attributing his remarks on the Rafale verdict to the apex court. In her plea, Lekhi said Rahul had attributed his personal remarks to the top court and tried to create prejudice.
On April 15 that year, the Supreme Court sought an explanation from Rahul for “incorrectly attributing” a remark to the court. “We make it clear that views attributed to this court by Rahul Gandhi in media or public on the Rafale verdict have been incorrectly attributed,” the Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said. The Bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, added: “Having clarified the matter, we deem it appropriate to seek an explanation of Gandhi.”
On April 22, Rahul filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, expressing regret over his remarks. “On 10.04.2019, at the time of and in my statement, the issues relating to court proceedings unfortunately got juxtaposed and mingled with a political slogan being used extensively by answering Respondent’s party as well as answering Respondent for the last several months, which is a matter of intense and frenzied public debate during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
“My statement was made in the heat of political campaigning. It has been used (and misused) by my political opponents to project that I had deliberately and intentionally suggested that this Court had said Chowkidar Chor Hai! Nothing could be farther from my mind. It is also clear that no court would ever do that and hence the unfortunate references (for which I express regret) to the court order and to the political slogan juxtaposition in the same breath in the heat of political campaigning ought not to be construed as suggesting that the court had given any finding or conclusion on that issue,” he added.
He, however, took the opportunity “to reaffirm his stand and belief and that of his party that the Rafale deal is a tainted transaction and a gross and brazen abuse of executive power”.
The following day, the Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to Rahul. About two weeks later, on May 8, Rahul filed an additional three-page affidavit. “The deponent (Rahul Gandhi) unconditionally apologises for the wrongful attributions to this court,” he said.
On November 14, the Court closed the contempt proceedings after rebuking Rahul for “wrongly attributing the remarks to it”. The apex court, under a Bench comprising Justice Gogoi and KM Joseph, said: “It is unfortunate that without any verification certain remarks were made by the contemnor (Rahul Gandhi) against the prime minister,” adding that “Mr. Gandhi needs to be more careful in future.”
The BJP had kept attacking Rahul through the proceedings. After the verdict, BJP working president J P Nadda said the Congress leader had tried to mislead the country on the issue and should now apologise to the country.
Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while addressing a press conference at the party office in New Delhi said, “It is recognition of the honest decision-making process of the Narendra Modi government…Satyamev Jayate. The Congress party must apologise and Rahul Gandhi in particular must apologise to the country,” Prasad said.
