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Rafale Saga: A sinister attempt to undermine Democracy by the liberal media-political establishment has been crushed

K Bhattacharjee
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Rafale Saga: A sinister attempt to undermine Democracy by the liberal media-political establishment has been crushed

The Supreme Court on Thursday put an end to the farcical ‘Rafale scam’ drama and dismissed all review petitions which sought an investigation into the defence deal. The Court also closed the contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi by asking him to be more careful about the comments he makes.

In the aftermath of the verdict, we have the opportunity to look back at the whole Rafale saga and the sinister attempt that it was at hijacking our democracy. The allegations and the propaganda that was hyped were designed with one single purpose: maligning the character and personal integrity of the Prime Minister. It was a malicious attempt at swaying the mind of the voter going into the elections.

The saga also reveals the extent of collusion between the media and a particular faction of the political establishment. Rahul Gandhi and the secular-liberal political establishment invented allegations out of thin air and the mainstream media was more than eager to provide them with a platform to appeal to the electorate with their lies. The media served as the propaganda wing of the Congress party and it used its massive resources to effectively campaign against the ruling government.

Read: Here is a compilation of the lies spread by Rahul Gandhi about the Rafale Deal in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

In the aftermath of the Uttar Pradesh elections, the mood of the nation was pretty clear. The people were overwhelmingly in favour of the BJP and they registered their optimism on the ballot by awarding BJP over 300 seats in the state assembly. It was clear that the Opposition was in disarray and merely stitching opportunistic alliances won’t work. They needed something more, something that could undermine the image of Narendra Modi among the electorate as an honest man with great personal integrity.

The Rafale Deal was perfect to serve its purpose. By its very nature, the government was not at liberty to disclose all the details pertaining to the deal. Moreover, the details of defence deals are very complicated for the average citizen. And the ordinary citizen is much too busy with earning his or her livelihood, one cannot afford to spend too much time studying one particular issue that does not affect his immediate livelihood in any significant manner. Therefore, on such occasions, the citizen trusts the media to tell him accurately about everything that is happening.

Read: How Lutyens’ Media shielded Rahul Gandhi on his lies about Rafale after Arun Jaitley’s speech

However, there was a great betrayal of the trust that the citizen of this country puts in the media. The politicians with the help of their friends in the media took the country on a joyride. N Ram of The Hindu, at one point, was competing with Rahul Gandhi in spreading lies about the deal. The newspaper not only cropped a ‘dissent note‘ about the deal but also digitally manipulated it. His conduct was perfectly understandable considering the fact that he and P Chidambaram go way back.

Ultimately, it came down to a matter of trust. And during the General Elections of 2019, the people of this country demonstrated that they had more faith in Narendra Modi than they had in Rahul Gandhi and the Mahagathbandhan. Not even the promise of a basic minimum income of Rs. 12,000 per month could sway them from their trust in the Prime Minister. It is an indictment of the media as much as it is an indictment of the political establishment.

Following Narendra Modi’s immense victory in 2019, the media and the political establishment went extremely quiet about the whole Rafale Deal. Now that the elections were over and people had made their choice, Rafale was not an issue anymore. Even when Defense Minister Rajnath Singh performed the Shastra Puja while receiving the Rafale in France, the media and the Opposition had nothing to say about the allegedly huge ‘scam’ that had occurred during its procurement. It clearly shows that there was never any ‘scam’ involved and the Opposition parties and their friends in the media had no dirt whatsoever on the government.

Read: Rafale cacophony: NDTV gives a masterclass in how pliant media is expected to behave

The inevitable death of the Rafale Deal proves incontrovertibly that the supposed ‘watchdogs’ of the government have themselves been corrupted beyond recognition. Maybe there was a time when the media truly was what it claimed to be (I doubt that), but now, they certainly are in bed with one particular section of the political establishment. There’s a reason for this.

The media and the political establishment now belong to the same class: The Ruling Class. As part of the same class, they share a lot of common interests. The people in the current ruling disposition are obviously not considered ‘one of them’. The ideals and the values of the secular-liberal media-political establishment will never be in alignment with that of the ‘Sangh Parivar’ and people in both the competing factions realize that.

Thus, with no viable options available at the table, the media-political establishment essentially tried to pull a ‘coup’ using their combined resources to fool the public on the basis of complete lies and slanders. The media served as the propaganda wing of the political establishment led by Rahul Gandhi while pretending to be neutral on the Rafale matter. What the Judiciary dismissed today were not merely review petitions, it can verily be compared with an attempt at a coup by the media-political establishment.

After SC verdict on Rafale, ‘belly dancer’ spokesperson of Congress says ‘sorry’ to Anil Ambani, then says it was sarcastic

OpIndia Staff
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After SC verdict on Rafale, ‘belly dancer’ spokesperson of Congress says ‘sorry’ to Anil Ambani, then says it was sarcastic

The Supreme Court has delivered a stunning blow to Congress and career activists who wished to cast aspersions on not just the Rafale deal but also Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally. The SC today dismissed review petitions against its 2018 judgement that refused to order a probe into the Rafale deal. With this, the curtain falls on one of the most motivated and vicious campaigns launched against the Modi government that cast a shadow even on India’s national security. After the Supreme Court delivered the Rafale verdict, Sanjay Jha, the National Spokesperson of the Congress party took to Twitter to apologise to Anil Ambani in a strangely cryptic, yet arrogant tweet.


Sanjay Jha said, “Now that the Supreme Court has given the Rafale Verdict, I would like to publicly apologise to the Honourable Shri Anil Ambani Ji for making bogus charges against him on TV shows. Sir Ji, you are a personification of integrity, honesty and transparency. Sir Ji, please forgive”.

Soon, many people started mocking Sanjay Jha considering the Supreme Court had not just shut down the Rafale drama, but also rebuked Rahul Gandhi.


Anil Ambani has proven that he is not averse to pulling up the rumour mills that peddle falsehoods against him.

In August 2018, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence had sent a legal notice to Congress national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill asking him to refrain from making unverified, frivolous and defamatory statements on the Rafale deal. In a ‘cease and desist’ notice addressed to Jaiveer Shergill, Reliance said that freedom of expression of politicians does not mean that they have a license to behave irresponsibly and make distorted statements to suit their political interests.

The Reliance named other Congress leaders viz Randeep Surjewala, Ashok Chavan, Sanjay Nirupam, Anugrah Narayan Singh. Oommen Chandy, Shaktisinh Gohil, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sunil Kumar Jakhar and Priyanka Chaturvedi and furthered that the company reserved the right to resort to legal recourse for the protection of their name, brand, reputation, and goodwill in case of any scurrilous statements being made against them.

The Reliance group of industries, headed by Anil Ambani had earlier too sent a Rs 1,000 crore defamation notice to Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam for making “false and baseless” allegations against the company and demanded an apology within 72 hours after the receipt of the notice. The company also demanded that Nirupam “desist from making any such statements concerning the Reliance Group without first ascertaining the facts.”

Not just that, Anil Ambani had also sued The Wire for Rs 6000 crores for their lies in the Rafale case.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance group had sued leftist propaganda website The Wire for Rs. 6,000 crore over its coverage of the Rafale deal. The case pertained to a video discussion about the Rafale deal which was published by The Wire. The video featured The Wire Founding Editor MK Venu, Jawaharlal Nehru University Associate Professor Happymon Jacob and journalist Ajai Shukla. In the Rs. 6,000 crore defamation suit, the company claimed that the programme is ‘false’. It further claims that the statements made during the discussion are “wholly incorrect and misleading, made with a deliberate pre-determined motive to harm and injure the reputation.”

It is thus entirely possible that Sanjay Jha is trying to shield himself from further action by Anil Ambani considering several Congress leaders including Jha have made several defamatory statements against Anil Ambani and the Rafale deal.

With the Supreme Court burying the baseless allegations against PM Modi, the Modi government, the Rafale deal and Amil Ambani once and for all, Sanjay Jha could be hedging his bets by issuing an apology to Anil Ambani and making it sound arrogant just to play to his audience.

However, Sanjay Jha soon tweeted a ‘clarification’:


He claimed that his tweet was “sardonic, scalding and sarcastic dig at Shri Ambani Ji on the Rafale verdict” and that it is being deliberately twisted by “BJP cheerleaders”.

Considering the Rafale verdict was a scathing indictment of Congress lies, one certainly does wonder how Sanjay Jha could use that to take sarcastic digs at anyone connected with the Rafale deal.

One wonders if the mocking got to Sanjay Jha and he then issued this ‘clarification’. Or that when he tweeted the “sarcastic” tweet he forgot that the Supreme Court also came down hard on his master, Rahul Gandhi.

Sanjay Jha who is fondly called a ‘belly dancer’ by several netizens after he had claimed that if Nirmala Sitharaman is the Finance Minister, he is a belly dancer, however, could not catch a break. After the ‘clarification’, the mocking only got worse.


While we will never know whether Sanjay Jha issued a genuine apology and then flipped later or was being sarcastic from the word-go, what we know with certainty is that Sanjay Jha should have no problem either issuing a genuine apology or making a complete fool of himself by tweeting ‘sarcastically’ when it is his party that has been rapped by the Supreme Court.

In 2014, Jha had issued an unconditional apology to BJP MP Subramanian Swamy for calling him a CIA agent and thus, Jha has had enough practice in apologising when he sticks his foot in his mouth.

Tamil Nadu: Hindu groups protest over public hearing with illegal squatters on temple land

OpIndia Staff
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Tamil Nadu: Hindu groups protest over public hearing with illegal squatters on temple land

The Hindu groups put up a massive protest in Tirupur on Wednesday after local AIADMK MLA S Gunasekaran organised a public hearing with the illegal squatters who had bought temple lands, reports Times of India.

According to the reports, a public hearing was organised by Tirupur south AIADMK MLA S Gunasekaran to address the problems of those people who bought temple lands illegally. The meeting was cancelled on Wednesday after Hindu groups such as Hindu Munnani and Shiv Sena objected to such a hearing.

A controversy had erupted after more than 500 families had occupied lands across the 20 acres of temple lands spread over Karuvampalayam, Sheriff Colony, LRG Layout, Senguthapuram, Mullai Nagar, Palayakadu, KVR Nagar, Chellam Nagar, Ayyan Nagar, Dhanlakshmi Layout and Alangadu. The lands belong to Visweswaraswamy and Veeraraghava Perumal temple in Tirupur and Visweswaraswamy Visalatchi Amman Subramanyaswamy temple at Nallur.

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Reportedly, the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR & CE) department claimed that more than 500 families occupied the lands, which may have been sold to these squatters fraudulently by former managing trustees of the temples fifty years ago.

To discuss the issue, the local MLA had called a meeting at a marriage hall at KNP Colony on Dharapuram Road. He said that while the land was sold fraudulently to the occupants, most people had brought it with their hard earned money. The buyers were unaware that the land was disputed he said. However, following the Madras High Court intervention in 2013, their ownership rights were revoked. “They are just occupants now,” he said.

JS Kishore Kumar, the general secretary of Hindu Munnani said they had been voicing to safeguard the temple lands. He said that the government wants to provide the land to illegal occupants without punishing those responsible for selling and transferring the ownership of the land illegally.

In a controversial decision, the Tamil Nadu government in October had determined to give away thousands of acres of Temple land to illegal squatters. The Madras High Court had come down heavily on Tamil Nadu government for helping illegal squatters by giving them temple land.

The Tamil Nadu government had filed a counter-affidavit in High Court categorically stating that it had decided to give patta to illegal squatters on the temple lands. According to the affidavit, the government will give patta to the poor families who have been squatting on temple lands for a ‘considerable period of time’ after compensating the department for the land.

Even though the Tamil Nadu government had said that the poor squatters will be given a patta, it had not yet outlined the criteria it will apply to grant patta to the illegal squatters.

The most worrying aspect of this entire affidavit filed by the Tamil Nadu government stating that it will possess the absolute power to decide which temple land should be given away to squatters, while the Tamil Nadu govt compensates itself for the land, without even considering the Temple itself as a stakeholder in the decision making the process.

Defence scams exclusive to Nehru-Gandhi family: Netizens invoke Bofors scam as SC dismisses Rafale review petitions

OpIndia Staff
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Defence scams exclusive to Nehru-Gandhi family: Netizens invoke Bofors scam as SC dismisses Rafale review petitions

Soon after the Supreme Court dismissed the review petitions filed by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha for lack of merit, netizens invoked the Bofors scam to remind Rahul Gandhi, who as then Congress President had based his entire campaign for 2019 general elections on imaginary Rafale scam.


BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya tweeted how Bofors legacy is exclusive to Rahul Gandhi’s family and that PM Modi is incorruptible.


Political survey agency Jan Ki Baat CEO Pradip Bhandari took to Twitter to say how Congress-led Opposition left no stone unturned ahead of elections in a bid to topple the government. However, it didn’t work.


Netizens even asked Rahul Gandhi how come he never invoked Rafale once the 2019 election results were out if Rafale was really a scam and he believed in it.


The then Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, ahead of 2019 elections, in Parliament had said that Bofors had brought down Congress government but Rafale will bring back the Modi government back.


During the run-up to 2019 elections, Congress-led Opposition had trained guns on PM Modi and often repeated the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ jibe which then Congress President Rahul Gandhi had coined. However, the same has backfired.

Read: Papers long buried, questions that were never asked: Was Sonia Gandhi’s Italian family involved in the Bofors scam?

In fact, the Supreme Court today while dismissing contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ slogan to the apex court also said that he needs to be careful in future.

Family over party? Congress ‘agitation’ against economic slowdown to now include issue of the Gandhis’ SPG cover withdrawal

OpIndia Staff
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Family over party? Congress ‘agitation’ against economic slowdown to now include issue of the Gandhis’ SPG cover withdrawal

As the central government decided to downgrade the security cover for the Gandhi family from SPG cover to ‘Z-plus’ category, the agitated Congress party has now decided to make the issue as one of the main agenda of their ongoing ‘protests’ that were supposed to be over ‘economic slowdown’.

According to the reports, the Congress party has written to the state units to include the issue of removal of SPG security to Gandhi family as one of the mainstays of the protests.

The AICC directive while directing its state units to protest against economic issues, interestingly has included the issue of SPG cover issue of the Gandhis. “In the meanwhile, we have also seen the vindictive action of the BJP government in the withdrawal of SPG cover to our top leaders,” read the directive.

Read: Here are the possible reasons why Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi lost their SPG cover

The Congress has reportedly extended the agitation for another 10 days to raise the pitch against the government over the withdrawal of SPG protection to the Gandhi family and economic slowdown among other issues. The agitation, which began on November 5 and was to end on November 15, will now go on till November 25.

Last week, the centre had downgraded the security cover provided to Gandhi Parivar from SPG cover to Z-plus category after the intelligence agencies presented a detailed threat perception.

Reportedly, the non-cooperation of the Gandhi family with the SPG over the years and preventing the smooth functioning of SPG was also one of the reasons for the government to downgrade their security from SPG to a Z-plus category.

The AICC’s formal directive to state units to protest over Centre’s ‘vendetta’ on SPG cover issue means that this issue will take precedence over economic issues during the dharnas and press conferences during the upcoming event.

“The agitation of the Congress party will lay special focus on the high degree of unemployment, unprecedented economic slowdown, spiralling price rise, the collapse of the banking system, farm distress, heavy loss of jobs, the adverse impact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), among others,” said the directive issued by Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal.

It is notable here that on November 8, workers of Youth Congress had protested outside Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence over the Gandhis’ SPG cover removal.


Earlier, the grand old party had announced that it will hold an all-party protest rally on December 1 at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on issues of ‘economic slowdown and agrarian crisis’ after failing to put up a protest against the government on two occasions despite announcements. This was the third such ‘protest rally’ announced by Congress since September.

In September, Congress had announced a country-wide agitation from 15th to 25th October on these issues. However, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi was off on vacation at a mysterious foreign location, dampening the ‘protest’ plans of his party.

Read: Congress puts the ‘slow’ in ‘economic slowdown’, protest rally due in October to be held in December

In October, before the last date of planned protests expired, Congress announced fresh dates of protests against ‘economic slowdown’. On 22nd October, the Congress party yet again issued a statement stating that they will protest across the country in the first week of November. Then, the Congress had announced that the protests will be starting from 5th November and continue till 15th November.

Read: 23 days after he left for a Bangkok vacation, Rahul Gandhi leaves for another foreign tour, this time Indonesia: Reports

Earlier, it was announced that Rahul Gandhi will come back from his so-called ‘meditational’ visit abroad to join the protests. But so far, the Gandhi scion is yet to be spotted in public. The party had also announced another round of protests on December 1 at Delhi’s Ramleela Maidan. So far, there are no updates as to whether the December protests will be a continuation of the current ones or it will be started all over again.

SC issues notice to Indira Jaising, Anand Grover over CBI challenging HC order staying coercive action against their NGO for FCRA violations

OpIndia Staff
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SC issues notice to Indira Jaising, Anand Grover over CBI challenging HC order staying coercive action against their NGO for FCRA violations

In July 2019, the Bombay High Court had given temporary relief to lawyers Indira Jaising and her husband Anand Grover in the CBI case against their NGO Lawyers’ Collective. The High Court had held that the CBI cannot take any coercive action against the NGO’s founders – Jaising and Grover. The Supreme Court today issued a notice to NGO Lawyers Collective and its founding members on the plea of CBI challenging the Bombay High Court order.


The Supreme Court, however, refused to stay the Bombay High Court order ordering the CBI not to take any coercive measures against Lawyers Collective NGO or its founding members Indira Jaising and Anand Grover.


Interestingly, the bench comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari also dismissed the PIL filed by NGO Lawyers’ Voice, observing that since the action has already been taken by the CBI, the petition no longer survived. Lawyers’ Voice had sought criminal action against Grover and Jaising for alleged violation of Foreign Contributions Regulation Act by Lawyers’ Collective.

Read: ‘Vested interests or to gain cheap popularity’: Bar Council slams derogatory tweet by Indira Jaising

In June, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR against Advocate Anand Grover and NGO Lawyers’ Collective for FCRA violations.

The FIR was filed under sections 120-B, 406, 120, 199 of the Indian Penal Code, 33, 35, 37, 39 of the FCRA, 2010 and other sections of the PC Act, 1988. The FIR also mentions several other office-bearers and functionaries of the NGO and unknown private persons and public servants under IPC sections that deal with forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

Read: The Judiciary is the new ideological battleground which is being exploited by career ‘activists’

The FRCA licence of the NGO was cancelled by the Modi government in 2016 for using foreign funds to achieve political objectives. Indira Jaising also appeared on behalf of one of the petitioners who wanted to desecrate the Sabarimala Temple.

Amethi DM sacked after video of him dragging murder victim’s kin by shirt goes viral

OpIndia Staff
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Amethi DM sacked after video of him dragging murder victim’s kin by shirt goes viral

In the latest development, Amethi DM Prashant Sharma has been sacked after a video of him dragging a murder victim’s kin by his shirt went viral yesterday. Arun Kumar will be the new DM in Amethi.


Sharma had also brazened out his misbehaviour and had called the video ‘edited’.

In a video that went viral yesterday, Prashant Sharma, the DM of Amethi, was seen manhandling a person who was trying to communicate with him over a recent murder case.


In the viral video, DM Sharma was seen first dragging a person by his hand, then by his shirt and literally shoving him, all the while talking to him in a menacing and threatening manner.

The person in the video was reportedly the kin of one Sonu Singh, a local vendor, and the son of a local BJP leader Shivnayak Singh in Amethi’s Visundaspur village under Gauriganj police station who was shot dead by unknown criminals on Tuesday. Yesterday, Singh’s family members and relatives had gathered near the post-mortem location demanding a detailed investigation into the murder case.

On Wednesday, as the agitating crowd gathered outside the post-mortem centre, the DM reportedly told the crowd that there are no countries where crimes do not take place and the administration is not god. When the man in the video, reportedly, a cousin of the victim, tried to tell the DM that a police van was in the vicinity and the crime could have been prevented, the DM dragged the man by his shirt and shoving him before the crowd, asked whether he can see anyone with a gun.

In the viral video, the gathered crowd is seen asking the DM to show a little compassion and not to behave in such a manner. As the video went viral, Amethi MP and Union Minister Smriti Irani tweeted tagging the DM’s official handle and stated, “We are the servants of the public, not the rulers. We should be compassionate and humble.”

However, instead of being ashamed of his behaviour, the DM went ahead to claim that the incident was not what it looked like and the video was edited. He called the viral video a ‘media misrepresentation’.


The DM even got hold of Sunil Singh, the murder victim’s cousin whom he had dragged and shoved in the viral video, and made him say that the viral video was ‘edited’ and the DM has helped the family a lot. Sunil Singh was saying in that video that the DM had listened to him patiently and had promised all possible help. DM Sharma also shared a statement claiming that the video has been ‘edited’ and the allegations against him are false.

Amethi DM’s statement, via Twitter

It is notable here that this is not the first time DM Prashant Sharma has been in the news. Earlier in January this year, The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad HC had issued a non-bailable warrant against DM Sharma for allegedly submitting false information in an affidavit.

As per a report in The Print Hindi, the court had summoned DM Sharma over the false affidavit and had placed him in custody till the end of hearing on that day in January. He was allowed to go after he had submitted a clarification and apology.

Social Media users have expressed anger and outrage over the arrogant behaviour of the DM with a common man and later attempts to brazen out his mistake by calling the video ‘edited’. People have been demanding action against the DM.

Mr Rahul needs to be more careful in future: SC dismisses contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi for ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ remark

OpIndia Staff
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Mr Rahul needs to be more careful in future: SC dismisses contempt petition against Rahul Gandhi for ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ remark

The Supreme Court today closed the contempt plea filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing the ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ slogan against Prime Minister Modi to the apex court in Rafale case.


While dismissing the plea, the apex court said that Rahul Gandhi needs to be more careful in future for attributing remarks to the Supreme Court. In May this year, Gandhi had tendered an unconditional apology for wrongly attributing the slogan to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has also dismissed Rafale review petitions against its 14th December, 2018 judgement upholding the 36 Rafale jets’ deal.

On April 10, while campaigning at a rally, Rahul Gandhi had stated that the Supreme Court order says, “Chowkidar Chor Hai”. This was with reference to SC overruling primary objections raised by the Centre against accepting media reports produced by review petitions. The SC had decided to hear the review petitions on merits.

BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi had filed a contempt plea against the statement on which the SC had issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi. The court had stated that it has never said so. The SC had allowed the admissibility of three documents in their hearing of the review petitions on the Rafale verdict. Rahul, Congress and the supportive ecosystem had propagated the step as a big victory against the NDA government.

Read: Rahul Gandhi upset that senior Congress leaders didn’t shout ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ enough, lashes out on them for party’s defeat

Rahul’s unconditional apology had come after much embarrassment to his image and his party as he was made to admit he had said it at ‘the heat of campaigning’.

The Supreme Court had also objected over the affidavit submitted by Rahul Gandhi. CJI Gogoi had stated during a hearing that Rahul admitted wrongly attributing the remark but he stood by it. Later, the SC had also raised an objection regarding Rahul Gandhi’s affidavits. The court had stated that ‘regret’ is not ‘apology’ and had ordered Rahul to submit an unconditional apology.

Rafale case: SC dismisses review petitions by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, says ‘they lack merit’

OpIndia Staff
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Rafale case: SC dismisses review petitions by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, says ‘they lack merit’

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petitions against the December 14th judgement of the SC which declined to order a probe into the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets by the Modi government from Dassault Aviation. The review petitions were filed by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha.

Read: Here is a compilation of the lies spread by Rahul Gandhi about the Rafale Deal in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha Elections

The 3 Judge Supreme Court bench comprised of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph. The 3 Judge Bench held that the review petitions filed by Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha lacked merits.

Read: Fact-Check: N Ram is lying in his The Hindu article about the Rafale Deal, here’s how

The Supreme Court had reserved its verdict in May 2019 on the review petitions filed against its December 2018 order that refused to order a probe in the Rafale deal.

The review petitions filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan and former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie placed reliance on documents leaked by The Hindu and its editor N Ram in order to argue that the Modi Government had suppressed information from the Court regarding the deal to procure 36 Rafale jets. The Court also heard an application for initiating perjury proceedings against officials who had allegedly misled the Court.

Read: The Hindu deliberately distorts MoD document to spread Fake News on the Rafale Deal

It is pertinent to mention here that the documents leaked by The Hindu were cropped and digitally manipulated to conceal evidence that can go against the Rafale case that Modi detractors were trying to build to help Congress and Rahul Gandhi in the run-up to 2019 elections.

Read: The Hindu not only cropped the Rafale dissent note but also had digitally manipulated it

The Supreme Court has held that the plea on charges of perjury against the officials is also not fair.

While this judgement has cast a shadow on the integrity of Rahul Gandhi who furthered this lie repeatedly, it has also indicted The Hindu that published cropped documents in order to further this lie.

SC refers the Sabarimala matter to a larger bench by 3:2 majority, pegged with issues like women entry into Mosques and FGM

OpIndia Staff
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SC refers the Sabarimala matter to a larger bench by 3:2 majority, pegged with issues like women entry into Mosques and FGM

The Supreme Court led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi could not come to a conclusive decision in Sabarimala review petitions and have referred the case to a larger bench by a 3:2 majority.

The Bench to hear the Sabarimala review petitions assembled at 10:30 AM. The review petitions challenged the 2018 verdict that allowed women of menstruating age to enter the Sabarimala temple.

The Supreme Court said that the issue of women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple is not just limited to Sabarimala. It involves the entry of women into Mosques as well. The Supreme Court referenced to larger Bench of issues arising in case of entry of Muslim women into a mosque, female genital mutilation cannot be ruled out.

CJI, justices- Khanvilkar and Malhotra viewed to refer the matter to a larger bench. Justices Chandrachur and Nariman gave dissent view on Sabrimala review pleas. The Supreme Court could not reach a consensus on the review petitions and this, the Sabarimala matter referred to a larger bench by 3:2 J Chandrachud and Nariman dissent Review petitions being kept pending.

The matter has been referred to a larger bench essentially because of the issue of entry of women into Mosques. Issues relating to the conflict between Shirur Math and Dargah to be decided larger Bench including on essential religious practices and other aspects.

Reading out the majority judgment, CJI Gogoi mentioned that issues such as the legality of Female Genital Mutilation in Dawoodi Bohra community, Muslim women mosque entry, right of Parsi women who married outside the community to access towers of silence etc, have been referred to a larger bench. The Sabarimala issue has been tagged along with these other issues and referred to a larger bench. The Supreme Court has decided that Sabarimala review petitions to remain pending until the issue is decided by larger Bench.

Justices Rohinton Nariman and Chandrachud dissented and said that compliance with Supreme Court judgments is not optional.

Justice Nariman, who read out the dissenting opinion, said that the issues of Parsi women and Muslim women were not before the Sabarimala bench and hence the matter could not be tagged with them. The original judgment was based on a bona fide PIL which raised the issue of women being denied entry on the basis of their physiological features, said Justice Nariman.

The Supreme Court had reserved its judgment in the Sabarimala verdict after hearing the review petitions in September this year, challenging the court’s verdict of lifting the ban on women of menstrual age to enter the shrine of Sabarimala-The abode of Lord Ayyappa. The court verdict sparked a series of protest with many asserting that the court cannot interfere in the centuries-old tradition of the Sabarimala temple. There were 65 petitions including 56 review petitions and 4 writ petitions against the judgment passed by the top court.

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