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Rafale to sink Parliament session this week too

Last Updated 17 December 2018, 07:17 IST

The Rafale deal will continue to rock the Parliament this week.

While the ruling BJP is all set to wave the "clean chit" the Centre got in the Supreme Court, the Opposition will flag a controversial paragraph in the judgement to claim the government misled the top judges.

The Congress and other parties are demanding that perjury charges be invoked against the government.

The BJP on the other hand is holding 70 press conferences across the country on Monday fielding senior leaders including Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ram Madhav, Yogi Adityanath, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Devendra Fadnavis.

Opposition parties like the CPM and the RJD have already announced that they will submit privilege notices against Advocate General K K Venugopal in both the Houses on the issue.

In Parliament, the government has listed a clutch of legislation to be passed but the chances of the Houses functioning is very low as the ruling BJP and Congress-led Opposition have decided to up the ante on the Rafale deal.

The Congress is demanding a probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), especially after the Supreme Court refusing to order a court-monitored probe.

The listed legislation include Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, Surrogacy and Consumer Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha and the NCTE Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

In the Upper House, a short discussion on price rise of essential commodities and fuel price has been listed for Wednesday on a notice submitted by Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad.

A calling attention motion has been listed for Tuesday on a notice by AIADMK MP V Maitreyan regarding the situation arising due to devastation caused by cyclones Gaja and Titli.

The Rafale issue has raised the political pitch after it emerged that a paragraph in the verdict claiming that a report by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which was now under consideration of Public Accounts Committee, was placed before the Parliament.

This gave the Opposition an opportunity to accuse the government of misleading the court, while the Centre on Saturday approached the court claiming that it has misinterpreted their submissions.

On Sunday, senior Congress leader and MP Anand Sharma urged the Supreme Court to recall its Rafale judgement and issue notices of contempt of court and perjury to the government.

Sharma also claimed that the government was guilty of committing breach of privilege of both Houses of the Parliament by claiming that the CAG report on Rafale pricing had been presented to the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said, "this government has been lying and now it has started lying to the Supreme Court. Is the government trying to say that the Chief Justice and two judges who heard the case do not know English and grammar?"

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(Published 16 December 2018, 10:53 IST)

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