Regret chowkidar chor hai remark against PM Modi: Rahul Gandhi in response to Supreme Court notice

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he regrets the remarks made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the Rafale deal. Gandhi made the submission in a response to a Supreme Court notice on a petition filed by BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi.

In his affidavit, the Congress president said the remark that the Supreme Court has agreed that PM Modi indulged in corruption in Rafale deal was "incorrectly attributed" to the court. Gandhi further said in the affidavit that he had made the statements in the heat of political campaigning which have been misused by his opponents.

"At the outset, there was not the slightest intention to insinuate anything regarding the Supreme Court proceedings in any manner. On April 10, the issues relating to court proceedings unfortunately got juxtaposed and mingled with a political slogan being used extensively," the Congress president said in his reply.

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The court, in a notice last week, had asked Gandhi to explain his alleged contemptuous remarks on recent the April 10 Rafale verdict. The court had asked the Congress president to reply to the notice by April 22.

"We make it clear that views, observations, findings attributed to this court in the alleged speeches, remarks made by Gandhi to media/public have been incorrectly attributed to this court. We also make it clear that this court had no occasion to make such observation in as much as it was deciding legal admissibility of certain documents which were objected by the attorney general," the bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had said in a hearing on April 15.

The court's directive came on a contempt petition filed by BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi against Rahul Gandhi for his "chowkidar chor hai" remark for PM Modi. "The words used and attributed by him to Supreme Court in the Rafale case has been made to appear something else. He is replacing his personal statement as Supreme Court's order and trying to create prejudice," Lekhi said in her petition.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, was hearing the plea where senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi argued that Supreme Court's recent dismissal of preliminary objections raised by the government in the ongoing Rafale review plea hearing have been deliberately misinterpreted by the Congress president.

Rohatgi said that Rahul Gandhi had come out in the public to make a remark that the "Supreme Court in its judgement said 'Chowkidar Narendra Modi chor hai'."

The bench said, "You were right to the extent we never said what has been brought in the petition. We will seek clarification."

The Congress president had on April 10 claimed that the apex court has made it "clear" that Prime Minister Narendra Modi "committed a theft".

He had made the statement while interacting with reporters in Amethi after filing his nomination papers where he is contesting against BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani.

(With inputs from agencies)