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Rafale deal: Modi govt threatens action against media for ‘stolen files’, gets slammed

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Rafale deal

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A day after Attorney General told the Supreme Court that crucial files relating to price negotiations in the Rafale deal had been stolen and the government was contemplating to take criminal action against the media houses that carried reports based on the files, the Narendra Modi government came in for scathing attack from the opposition and the media for trying to stifle the press on flimsy grounds.

Copies of files had appeared in media reports alleging that Narendra Modi government had misled the court about pricing of the Rafale fighter aircraft and the Prime Minister’s Office had sidelined the designated negotiating team in finalising the price of the Rafale fighter aircraft, causing loss to the exchequer.

Yesterday, these details were mentioned in the Supreme Court when it was hearing the petition, filed on behalf of former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha, seeking review of its December 14, 2018, judgment which dismissed all PILs seeking a probe into alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal.

Apparently left with no argument to counter petitioners demanding a review of the earlier Supreme Court verdict on grounds that the government had concealed this details from the court, the AG changed tack to claim the media reports had violated the Official Secrets Act, that the files were secret and could not be used in court proceedings and hence the plea be rejected.

He also said that the files had been ‘stolen’ and the government would initiate “criminal action” against the two publications that had reported the documents – The Hindu and news agency ANI – since the matter was of sensitive nature and is covered by the Official Secrets Act.

The AG’s contention was questioned by the judges, including Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. When Venugopal told the court that the matter was one involving national security and stolen material could not be relied upon unless the source was established, the bench raised several questions and asked him “suppose a crime like corruption has been committed, can you seek shelter under national security to suppress it?”

By afternoon today (Thursday, March 7), #FileChorChowkidar was trending at the top on Twitter.

N Ram, chairman of The Hindu Group, said “We are fully committed, absolutely committed to protect the confidentiality of our sources…. No force on Earth is going to change our mind on that,” Ram said. “… the documents speak for themselves and the stories speak for themselves,” he said.

He said the newspaper’s stand is, “what we published is perfectly justified (and) in public interest”.

“We have not stolen the documents,” Ram told The Indian Express. Ram did not want to comment on the proceeding in the Supreme Court since he is “not privy to all that was said”.

On “allegations that these are stolen documents, and we have published stolen documents”, Ram said the documents came from “confidential sources”.

Maintaining that it may be called “stolen documents under law,” or that access to them was unauthorised, Ram said, “That is how information comes out – it is very much a part of investigative journalism.”

This information, which “should have been in the public realm has been withheld, has been suppressed”, he said. “There has been a cover-up,” he maintained. “It is information that should have been given, (but) it was not given to Parliament. And I believe much of the information we have published has not been submitted to the Supreme Court either…”

When documents related to the Bofors deal had come out, and were published, Ram said, “nobody talked of using the Official Secrets Act”.

“We are fully protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and also under the Right to Information Act —- specifically 8(1)(i) and 8(2) overrides the Official Secrets Act,” the veteran journalist maintained.

Calling Official Secrets Act (OSA) an “obnoxious piece of legislation and legacy of the British Raj”, Ram said there have been several demands from “all democratic forces, and the press” to remove it. He said the OSA was enacted “purely in the interests of the British Raj, during imperialism” and since Independence, “it has been very rarely used against publications”. He said the OSA may have some application in cases of espionage, but that is a different matter.

Ram cited examples of Pentagon Papers, Watergate and leaks by WikiLeaks, internationally, where secret government documents were published by media and the government had claimed they were stolen. “We have heard this (charge that documents were stolen) before,” he said.

The Editors Guild of India weighed in today to back the media and condemned the government’s proposition that documents published by the media related to India’s Rafale fighter jet deal with France were “stolen” from the Defence Ministry.

The Guild said it was “perturbed” by the government’s threats that criminal action would be initiated against journalists or lawyers who used these documents.

It said any attempt to use the Official Secrets Act against the media would be “as reprehensible as asking the journalists to disclose their sources”, and urged the government against initiating action that might “undermine the media’s freedom and independence”.

In a statement, the Editors Guild said: “Although the Attorney General later clarified that the investigation and contemplated action would not be initiated against journalists or lawyers who used these documents, the Guild is perturbed over such threats. These will intimidate the media in general and curb its freedom to report and commend on the Rafale deal in particular.

“Any attempt to use the Official Secrets Act against the media is a reprehensible as asking the journalists to disclose their sources,” it added.

No talk of ‘stolen documents’, Defence Minister said in Lok Sabha the whole document should have been reported

The AG’s arguments appeared to be a lame and last ditch attempt at finding an escape route. A report in The Indian Express pointed out that on February 8 — the day The Hindu newspaper published a report citing official notings and news agency ANI put out the same note with more notings — Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman happily and triumphantly displayed the ANI report while countering the contents of The Hindu report. She made no mention of any “stolen” document when she spoke in Lok Sabha.

The Hindu report, citing a “Defence Ministry note” of November 2015, stated that the Ministry “raised strong objections to ‘parallel negotiations’ conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the French side” in the Rafale deal. Sitharaman said the note published along with the report did not include a noting by the then Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar who had negated the concerns.

Sitharaman, in fact, wanted The Hindu should have seen or reported the whole document.

“When the newspaper itself has chosen to say or point out in detail the then Defence Secretary’s comment which was meant for the attention of the then Raksha Mantri, it should have also put the reply of the Raksha Mantri which was also given in writing. If the newspaper wanted to bring the truth out, I would have thought that it was incumbent upon that newspaper to put the reply of the then Raksha Mantri also on record,” she said.

“The Opposition leaders who want a reply should now know what the reply of the then Raksha Mantri, Shri Parrikar was… The then Raksha Mantri, Shri Parrikar, had very clearly said in response to the file noting of the then Defence Secretary to ‘remain calm, there is nothing to worry, things are going all right’. To that extent, a detailed reply was given by the then Raksha Mantri, Shri Parrikar Ji … In all fairness, it should have been the duty of the newspaper which has published this to also put it on record the comment of the Defence Secretary and that the reply given was this,” she said.

Subramanian Swamy’s warning

Modi government came under fire from politicians as well. Even BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy warned the government in a tweet: “To file a Official Secrets Act case against any media, leave alone The Hindu, on election eve will be a political disaster.”

Senior advocate and constitutional expert Dushyant Dave was reported as having said on Wednesday, “The argument on behalf of the government is an absolute non-starter”.

“It is made only to deflect real debate on this most sensitive public issue. The government is on the back foot after having misled the Supreme Court as alleged in review petition by Shourie et al and is therefore trying to again lead the Supreme Court on a garden path,” he said.

He asserted that there was no violation of the Official Secrets Act as ministers, and the Prime Minister, besides Air Force top brass had repeatedly gone to the press with selective documents to justify their stand.

Former Additional Solicitor General and senior advocate Indira Jaising agreed with the oral observation made by the Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that even stolen evidence could be looked into, if it was found to be relevant.

During the hearing Justice Gogoi observed, “We can understand you saying that petitioners came with unclean hands. That they got the documents through doubtful sources. But it is another thing to say that the court cannot consider these documents at all. That they are untouchable”.

“Gayab ho gaya (It has disappeared” is Modi govt’s new tagline: Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi sought a probe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his role in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

Throwing back at PM the jibe of being the “poster boy of Pakistan”, he said, “PM got ISI to investigate Pathankot. PM’s going to Nawaz Sharif’s wedding and we are the poster boys? He is the poster boy of Pakistan.”

Gandhi said it was also Modi who called Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony in 2014.

“Modi is the poster boy of Pakistan and not us. We didn’t go and hug Nawaz Sharif and we didn’t let the ISI to Pathankot.”

Asked if proof of the Indian Air Force’s 26-February Balakot strike should be sought from the Modi government, Gandhi said the demand has come from the families as they are hurt.

“I won’t talk much about it (evidence of IAF strikes), but yes I read that families of some of the CRPF personnel who were martyred have raised this issue, they are saying we were hurt so please show us what happened,” he said.

The families of some of the “martyrs of the Pulwama attack” have sought proof of the strike’s casualties as doubts linger over what exactly happened at Balakot.

Referring to AG KK Venugopal’s submission in the Supreme Court that “secret papers on Rafale deal have been stolen”, the Congress president also coined a phrase — “gayab ho gaya” — to highlight the Modi government’s failure.

“Gayab ho gaya (It has vanished) is the government’s new tagline,” Rahul Gandhi said. “Jobs have disappeared, economic growth has disappeared, Doklam (2017 crisis with China) and now even the Rafale files have disappeared,” said Gandhi. “The objective of this government is to make things disappear.”

Of the files that Modi government now says have been stolen, one document is an eight-page dissent note written by three domain experts in the Indian negotiating team. In another, a top defence ministry official complained about the PMO conducting “parallel parleys” with the French authorities in the controversial Rafale deal which Rahul Gandhi cited to accuse the PMO of influencing the deal. “PM Modi performed bypass surgery in Rafale deal,” he said.

When asked if action can be taken under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) as suggested by Venugopal in court, Gandhi said the government was free to charge anything on anybody. “But why don’t you press charges on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Once that is done we will know where the money has really gone.”

“If you are going to press charges based on the Official Secrets Act, please do. But that means since documents are authentic, there should be charges pressed against the Prime Minister too,” said the Congress chief.

Gandhi also slammed the Modi government for lying to the Supreme Court. “The government is accepting in the SC that the files are original or true but claiming it to be stolen. So has the government lied to the SC?” he questioned.

“As per our (UPA) deal, Rafale jets would have come early. This PM has delayed it,” Gandhi said, adding that the Modi government was responsible for the jets not being available for the Balakot strikes.

The government had claimed in the Supreme Court that the IAF strike against the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Pakistan would have been easy if Rafale jets were available.

Pressing charges of corruption against PM Modi, Gandhi asked why criminal investigations were being done going only against opposition parties.

“They have refused to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe in the Rafale deal. If the PM has not done anything why doesn’t he simply get an investigation done and prove himself?” asked Gandhi.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Sambhal Court issues notice to Rahul Gandhi over fight against Indian state comment

Rahul Gandhi has been summoned by a Sambhal court over his statement that the opposition is fighting the Indian state, not just BJP or RSS.

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Rahul Gandhi addresses public at party headquarters

The District Judge Court of Sambhal has issued a notice to Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, seeking his response or appearance on April 4, in connection with a complaint filed over his controversial remark that opposition parties were not merely fighting the BJP or RSS, but the “Indian state” itself.

Statement triggers legal action

The legal proceedings stem from a statement made by Rahul Gandhi on January 15, during the inauguration of the Congress party’s new headquarters ‘Indira Bhawan’. In his address, Gandhi said, “Our ideology, like the RSS ideology, is thousands of years old, and it has been fighting the RSS ideology for thousands of years. Do not think that we are fighting a fair fight. There is no fairness in this. If you believe that we are fighting a political organisation called the BJP or RSS, you have not understood what is going on. The BJP and the RSS have captured every single institution of our country. We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian State itself.”

He also commented on the status of Indian institutions and media, suggesting that both were no longer functioning freely or fairly.

Revision petition leads to court summons

Advocate Sachin Goyal, representing complainant Simran Gupta, explained that a case was initially filed in the special MP/MLA court seeking registration of an FIR against Gandhi. However, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) dismissed the plea citing lack of jurisdiction.

Following this, a revision petition was filed, after which the Sambhal District Judge accepted the complaint and issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi. The court has asked him to either appear in person or file a formal response on or before April 4.

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AAP leader Satyendar Jain faces fresh Rs 7 crore CCTV fraud allegations

Delhi ACB has filed a fresh corruption case against Satyendar Jain, alleging he took a Rs 7 crore bribe to waive penalties in a Rs 571 crore CCTV project. AAP denies all charges.

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AAP Minister Satyendar Jain

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) finds itself mired in yet another controversy as former Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain faces fresh corruption allegations in connection with a Rs 571 crore CCTV installation project. The Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a case against Jain, accusing him of taking a Rs 7 crore bribe to waive a Rs 16 crore penalty imposed due to project delays.

According to the ACB’s statement released on Wednesday, the case has been registered under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The allegations stem from the installation of over one lakh CCTV cameras across Delhi’s 70 Assembly segments, with a second order of an additional 1.4 lakh cameras allegedly placed after the initial delay.

The case is reportedly based on the testimony of an official from Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), who detailed alleged irregularities and “shoddy” installations. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi has criticized AAP, accusing the party of suppressing the investigation when it was in power.

BJP Attacks AAP Over Corruption Allegations

Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva has slammed AAP over the fresh charges against Jain. He alleged that the tender for the Rs 571 crore project was awarded to BEL, and Jain took a Rs 7 crore bribe to waive off financial penalties. “BJP had complained then also… but AAP tried to suppress the investigation. No matter how much you tried to hide corruption, you have to answer now,” Sachdeva stated.

Neither AAP nor Satyendar Jain has responded to the allegations yet.

More Legal Trouble for AAP Leaders

This fresh case adds to the mounting legal troubles for top AAP leaders. Satyendar Jain, who was granted bail in October last year after spending two years in custody in a money laundering case, is also facing prosecution in a disproportionate assets case.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia are also battling corruption charges. Kejriwal has been accused of misusing public funds for promotional posters, while Sisodia is embroiled in an alleged Rs 2,000 crore scam linked to classroom construction in Delhi government schools. Jain is also named in this case.

The controversial Delhi liquor excise policy scam also remains under investigation. Last month, a Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) report stated that the state suffered a Rs 2,002 crore loss due to policy irregularities.

AAP Denies Charges, Calls It a Political Vendetta

AAP has dismissed all allegations, claiming they are politically motivated and orchestrated by the BJP to tarnish its image. The party has also denied accusations that Kejriwal misused Rs 45 crore of taxpayers’ money for renovating his official residence.

Despite its denials, AAP suffered a massive defeat in the recent Delhi Assembly elections, where the BJP secured 48 of the 70 seats, marking a significant power shift in the capital after nearly three decades.

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CM Hemant Soren assures Sarhul celebrations amid tribal protests over flyover

Tribal groups in Jharkhand protest against a flyover near a sacred site, demanding its removal. CM Hemant Soren assures that Sarhul will be celebrated with traditional fervor.

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Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has assured that the state’s biggest tribal festival, ‘Sarhul’, will be celebrated with traditional fervor despite ongoing protests by tribal outfits against an under-construction flyover near a Sarna Sthal, a sacred religious site.

Responding to concerns raised in the Jharkhand Assembly, BJP legislator CP Singh questioned the government over the construction of the flyover in Siram Toli, Ranchi, which tribal communities claim is obstructing access to their religious site. Singh urged the government to resolve the issue before the festival to avoid tensions.

In response, CM Soren acknowledged the issue and assured the people that Sarhul celebrations would not be affected.

Tribal protest intensifies in Ranchi

The tribal outfits staged a 5-km-long “funeral procession” of tribal legislators in Ranchi on Monday as a mark of protest against the flyover’s construction near the Sarna Sthal. The agitators torched effigies of 28 tribal legislators and demanded the removal of the flyover ramp, arguing that frequent traffic movement could disturb the sanctity of the religious site.

In a warning to the state government, the protestors have also called for a Ranchi bandh on March 22 if their demands are not met.

The 2.34-km-long elevated road, which includes a 132-meter section over a railway line, aims to ease traffic congestion by connecting Siram Toli to Mecon. However, its construction has triggered resistance from local tribal groups.

Ruckus in Jharkhand assembly over Giridih violence

Apart from the Sarna Sthal protest, the Jharkhand Assembly also witnessed an uproar over a clash during a Holi procession in Giridih district on March 14. BJP legislators stormed into the well of the House, demanding a special discussion on the state’s law and order situation.

Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi accused the government of appeasement politics, alleging that the administration remained a mute spectator during the violence. Several people were injured, and shops and vehicles were torched in the incident.

Marandi claimed that police action unfairly targeted one community, stating that while 80 people were booked and 22 arrested, the real culprits were not held accountable. He demanded that FIRs be registered against those responsible for inciting the violence.

The political tension continues to escalate as protests over tribal rights and law enforcement dominate the state’s discourse.

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