The Supreme Court on Wednesday, 6 March, adjourned the hearing of the Rafale case after a string of arguments and counter arguments. The government told the court on Wednesday that the documents related to the Rafale deal for French-made fighter planes may have been stolen from the Ministry of Defence.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, one of the petitioners against the Government of India in the Rafale case, alleged that the Centre submitted false documents to the court. Attorney General KK Venugopal, who represents the Centre, accused Bhushan of citing documents that were "stolen from the defence ministry”. The documents were published by a leading newspaper, The Hindu. He also said an investigation is on.
After the government’s claims of ‘stolen’ Rafale documents, #RafaleDeal began trending on Twitter. Journalist Swati Chaturvedi questioned the ‘theft’ of the files, calling it “a ridiculous excuse by the Modi government”.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi also tweeted saying this claim by the government is “destruction of evidence & an obvious cover up”.
Many came forward on Twitter demanding answers.
Some took a sarcastic dig at the Modi government for letting such documents vanish from the same office where he sits.
AAP National Secretary Pankaj Gupta called the government “incompetent”, questioning its capacity of “protecting our country” when “it cannot protect highly confidential files".
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was also pulled up by the Twiiterati.
Attorney General of India KK Venugopal, representing the Centre, told the court that the government is considering action against two newspapers which published the ‘stolen’ documents. Petitioner and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan replied that “such intimidation of petitioners in a court amounts to criminal contempt”.
If any action is taken against the newspaper that published the Rafale documents, it will “signal the end of democracy,” said journalists.
Twitter also made fun of the Modi government’s tendency to blame Nehru.
On the other side, there were also some calls to arrest Prashant Bhushan and the editor of The Hindu, N Ram, for being a “threat” to national security.
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