New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday tendered an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court on his ‘chowkidar’ jibe after the April 10 ruling on Rafale case. In his third affidavit, after restricting the first two affidavits to mere voicing of regret, Rahul has said he holds the Supreme Court in the highest esteem and respect. The affidavit urges the court to close the criminal contempt proceedings filed against him by the BJP’s New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi. “This is an unconditional apology to the Supreme Court for unintentionally and inadvertently linking its order in Rafale review plea to his ”cowkidar chor hai” political jibe against PM Narendra Modi,” the affidavit said.
The bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph had allowed Rahul to file a fresh affidavit tendering an apology but making it clear that its admissibility and acceptance will be decided in the hearing on Friday. After the SC rejected the Centre’s objections to the admissibility of certain documents submitted by the review petitioners in the Rafale case, Rahul had said: “Supreme Court ne clear kar diya hai ki chowkidarji ne chori karwai (Supreme Court has made it clear that chowkidarji got the theft done),” which became a subject of contempt.
During the previous hearing, Rahul’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said on behalf of the Congress leader, “I have expressed regret. That is the same as an apology. There cannot be any doubt on my statement.” The court was not satisfied with Rahul’s expression of regret in the previous two affidavits and that too in a bracket; it extracted a verbal apology from the counsel who said Rahul will apologise as he had no reason to drag the top court into an unnecessary political dispute.
Last Saturday, Rahul held a special press conference at the AICC headquarters to clarify that he had made a genuine mistake for which he is apologising to the Supreme Court, but it should not be construed in any manner as an apology to PM Modi or the BJP as the Congress slogan “Chowkidar chor hai” remains valid and Modi will be prosecuted for the theft in the Rafale scam if the Opposition comes to power.
