The tripartite coalition government headed by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has been stitched, but the distribution of portfolios between parties has become a major bone of contention in Maharashtra.
A group of NCP and Congress state legislatures are seeking deputy chief minister and all-important ministries like finance and home.
There is a rift between the two parties over these important ministries with Sharad Pawar and Prithviraj Chavan eyeing for the post.
Sharad Pawar, at any cost, wants to allocate home portfolio to a party colleague, because he is facing charges of having links with international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim.
He is also facing charges of complicity in shielding the D-Company supremo from arrests and sabotaging the Indian intelligence’s efforts in nabbing the Mumbai 1993 bomb blast accused.
The NCP does not want to concede home ministry, if it does, then Sharad Pawar will become a pawn in the hands of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, which will result in needless tensions between the two parties, leading to collapse of the government.
Thackeray was sworn in as the 18th chief minister of Maharashtra on November 28 after putting an end to the political imbroglio in Maharashtra.
The delay in finalising on deputy chief minister allocation is creating tensions between NCP and Congress. The grand old party, in fact, is perturbed over a group of NCP members clamoring for Ajit Pawar to occupy deputy chief minister's gaddi.
Sources say that the Congress does not want to damage the image of the tripartite coalition government by including Ajit Pawar in the ministry. So also, NCP does not want Congress leader Ashok Chavan to occupy in any ministerial seat as he is facing investigation into Adarsh Scam.
If Ajit Pawar does not get deputy chief minister's post, there are chances of him revolting and destablising the government, as he is enjoying the support of at least 21 NCP MLAs, who can bring down the government, just as the disqualified MLAs of Congress and JDS did in Karnataka a few months back.
Also, the inexperience of Thackeray in governance could give a torrid time for him to keep the flock together as it is not in his genes to coordinate, mediate and manage, people.
Experienced leaders like Jayant Patil, Chhagan Bhujbal, Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat, may try to dominate over him, brewing tensions between them. Sharad Pawar could fiddle with his ego by calling shots from behind-the-scene in the garb of a de facto head of the government.
Not far behind will be Sonia Gandhi, who has the experience of wielding enormous extra-constitutional powers through National Advisory Committee during a decade's UPA regime at the centre.
So, Thackeray's crown is full of thorns, which can prick to bleed him blue. Period.
Even after several years of this ghastly incident, the debate on Nathuram Godse, the killer of his, does not ebb down.
The debate once again erupted after BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur allegedly referred to Godse as a "deshbhakt" during a debate in the Lok Sabha on November 27 triggering protest by Opposition members.
This is the second time Pragya Thakur has described Godse as a patriot, during 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign, triggering a huge political storm.
Amid opposition protests over Pragya's comments, BJP went on the backfoot and said in Lok Sabha that the party condemns any philosophy which describes Gandhiji's killer as a patriot.
Not satisfied with the response of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Opposition led by the Congress staged a walkout.
Among the opposition parties, apart from Congress who staged a walkout, were Trinamool Congress, DMK, Left parties, NCP and AIMIM.
Yes, whoever praises Gandhiji's killer should be condemned, but equally should be put to shame, who kill his ideas almost everyday and claim themselves to be intellectuals of highest order.
This should be done because Gandhiji is immortal.
Can any political party in Lok Sabha proudly claim they have tread the path of Gandhiji's ideals? Congress, is the worst political party, that has crushed all his ideals for decades.
Gandhiji had intentions of dissolving Congress after Independence, but has it been implemented? He advocated Truth and non-violence, but any party has tread this path? All of them are immersed in corruption including coal and spectrum allocation scams.
A dumb political leader, who goes about lying on almost all issues, has any right to claim Gandhiji's ideals of Truth and non-violence? Or a leader like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury can claim his speeches are non-violent as Gandhiji's?
Do the parties also have any right over Gandhiji's legacy, who ignore his ideas about cow protection and economic philosophy, which is an anti-thesis to free economy. Did any Congress man raise voice against P V Narasimha Rao's government for violation before it was implemented?
And, the Left parties, less said the better. They see Gandhiji as an irrelevant historical relic, casteist and racist misogynist, among others. During the freedom struggle, they called him Camprado, meaning a person bought by rich men.
No political party, except BJP, mentions Gandhian socialism in their ideological papers.
What could be more shameful than any acts of Congress governments. The Manmohan Singh government failed to purchase Gandhiji's eyeglasses and some of his other belongings sold for $1.8 million in 2009 US auction. It, instead, took the legal route, despite knowing well that the Indian courts do not have jurisdiction in United States.
Even in 2012, the government did not purchase 29 items of Gandhiji's memorabilia at an auction in UK, instead they were acquired by a prominent businessman Kamal Morarka from Mumbai.
The truth is all parties in the name of Gandhiji play politics, but do not have slightest of inclinations to put to practice his ideals.
Yes, Godse should be condemned for killing Gandhiji, but cannot be called a terrorist, because the Supreme Court had declared him as a killer.
The Left intellectuals and media call Godse terrorist, but speak in support of terrorists like Afzal Guru. They must be exposed.
The dreams of Uddhav Thackeray becoming chief minister has been met, but how long would he remain in that coveted post, is a big question.
Looking at the events happened till the swearing-in ceremony, it appears Uddhav could also meet the same fate as BJP's Devendra Fadnavis.
Fadnavis had created a record by becoming the chief minister with the shortest tenure in Maharashtra. His second stint as chief minister lasted only 80 hours.
This possibility cannot be ruled out, considering the present political situation in the state. After all, who could have imagined the midnight coup of Amit Shah in forming the government with the help of Ajit Pawar, Sharad Pawar's nephew.
Ajit Pawar attended the swearing-in ceremony yesterday, but there was no smile on his face because he was given to understand that he would be given deputy chief minister's post.
This, however, is not a big deal for NCP because Ajit Pawar has been deputy chief minister in the previous NCP-Congress governments.
Because of his "rebellion" to join hands with Fadnavis to form the government, chances of him becoming deputy chief minister has dimmed.
The Congress, according to sources, are against giving any ministerial berth to Ajit Pawar, because he is facing investigation in irrigation and PMC bank scams, and moreover, they are wary of his rebellious intentions.
Two NCP leaders, Jayant Patil and Chagan Bhujbal, took oath as ministers. The former has the blessings of Sharad Pawar. He was appointed NCP's Legislature Party Leader after Ajit Pawar had joined hands with Fadnavis to become deputy chief minister, which collapsed in 80 hours.
THOUGH Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress successfully cobbled up a government, their unity will be put to test if floor test is sought for in Maharashtra assembly.
Ajit Pawar appears to be unhappy and restless, and could turn tables against triparte government any time, considering the twists and turns Maharashtra has witnessed in the last one month.
The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi has a total strength of 154 seats in the assembly. When he had joined hands with Fadnavis to form the government, Ajit Pawar had claimed support of 36 NCP MLAs.
According to highly reliable sources, at least 21 NCP MLAs are with Ajit Pawar and are bidding time to strike at an opportune occasion.
Will Ajit Pawar press for floor test again? He can, because he is still unsure of getting deputy chief minister's post.
Here, one should consider the remarks of Fadnavis, when he was asked about the reason for extending support to Ajit Pawar.
He had said he would talk about it at right time.
So, the drama in Maharashtra is not yet over. Keep track of Ajit Pawar's next move.
Many of the people in India are confused over the political drama unfolding in Maharashtra.
How innocent?
They are confused because the wheeler-dealer journalists are not in the picture in the formation of government as we all have been witnessing in the past.
Can anyone forget Radia tape case?
Any how, the only advise I can give to people is watch the Maharashtra politics unfold and enjoy from far.
Let me begin with the latest update.
Many television journalists are explaining the developments from the political angle, but I will try to explain from the legal point of view.
Since I have also covered court proceedings, according to my understanding, the script writer of this political game is NCP's Sharad Pawar.
However, I do not claim I am not infallible. My understanding might go wrong. Let me be humble.
Why do I say the script writer is Sharad Pawar?
The veteran NCP leader has already buried Congress and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. This will be remembered for a very long time.
And, there will be tons of debates in the future claiming that Sharad Pawar was innocent because he was with Sena and Congress till the end.
Let me explain.
First let me tell you what happened in Supreme Court in last two days. It has reserved its verdict for tomorrow. It can only fix the date and timing of floor test in Maharashtra assembly.
One who are vouching for Karnataka type verdict, let me tell them that there is a very big difference between Karnataka and Maharashtra.
One should understand that, in Maharashtra, the government has already been formed after NCP submitted letter of support to BJP. Also, Devendra Fadnavis and NCP's Ajit Pawar have already assumed charges of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.
In Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa had approached Karnataka Governor to claim formation of government with BJP MLAs only, not with MLAs belonging to other parties.
Whereas in Maharashtra, both Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar submitted letters to the Governor. Hence, there is a big difference between the two states.
What the tripartite alliance petition says?
The petition challenges the decision of the Governor to invite BJP to form a "minority government" and asserts that they have the numbers to stake claim to form the government.
They also categorically assert that all the MLAs of Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress are completely and solidly with the alliance except for Ajit Pawar.
The petitioners also claimed that there is no material available to indicate that Fadnavis had letters of support from 144 MLAs as was claimed further pointing out that the majority mark stands at 145.
They also questioned the timing of administration of oath as early as in the morning and President's rule rescinded from Maharashtra in the wee hours.
The petitioners also alleged that the Governor had acted in a "partisan manner" and "made a mockery of the high office of the Governor".
In fact, the petitioners have further added that the actions of the Governor indicate that he has acted at the behest of a political party, in this case, the BJP.
Therefore, they prayed to the court to quash Governor's order of inviting Fadnavis to form the government as void and initio, illegal, and arbitrary.
They further sought for a direction to be passed by the Court for the Governor to invite the alliance, which has the support of more than 144 MLAs, to form the government.
The objections to the pleas
Firstly, the Supreme Court does not have powers to dismiss any state government. Even in Yeddyurappa case, the Supreme Court had given a ruling on the date and timing of the floor test in Karnataka assembly.
Secondly, the Supreme Court neither has any authority to direct the Governor to invite tripartite alliance to form the government.
Also, the Governor is immune from any court action.
Thirdly, based on the petitioners' plea, the Supreme Court, on November 24, had asked to place before it the letters submitted to Governor by Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and said a floor test of Fadnavis government was the only issue before it.
Today, the letters were submitted to the Supreme Court, thereby the tripartite alliance plea to quash Fadnavis government is rendered null.
Moreover, Ajit Pawar, in his plea, today claimed that had he acted as the Leader of the NCP and there is nothing to the contrary to show that he was not the NCP leader on November 22.
In other words, Jayant Patil's appointment as NCP Leader after November 22 is unconstitutional. Interestingly, no parties have questioned the veracity of the letters, especially where Ajit Pawar mentions he is the Leader of NCP.
In contrast to BJP-NCP's letters submitted to the Governor, the counsel for NCP, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, withdrew the affidavit claiming that the tripartite alliance has the numbers to form the government.
This only means that the alliance did not have the numbers and hence to avoid contempt of court, Singhvi withdrew the affidavit.
Therefore, Ajit Pawar is NCP leader as per law and hence, he has the power to issue whip to his party legislators during the floor test.
Sharad Pawar's Game
Before the Modi-Shah-Pawar meeting, the NDA government had bestowed Padma Vibushan to the senior NCP leader and Amit Shah, just before the elections, expedited the ED probe against him in PMC bank case, so that the Maratha strongman's politics meanders around BJP.
In the backdrop of the trio's meeting, some questions arise. Why has Sharad Pawar not expelled Ajit Pawar for anti-party activities? In fact, he said he cannot do so because he alone cannot remove him.
Yet another question arises - Why did Ajit Pawar approach Governor to claim stake to form government the same night when he was made NCP Leader? Why not before that? Doesn't it looks like a ploy?
Did Sharad Pawar wait for giving a legal stamp to Ajit Pawar's letter before asking him to approach the Governor?
Has he also scripted a weak petition in Supreme Court?
Looks like, because he is known for scripting deceptive narrations to hurt rival parties all these years.
So, let me summarize the whole script of Sharad Pawar -
1) He made Ajit Pawar the NCP Leader
2) He handed over the letter of support to Ajit Pawar
3) He played the role of forming a rebel government
4) He filed a weak petition in the court
5) He appointed Jayant Patil as new NCP Leader thereafter which will not stand good legally
After doing all this, it is necessary for Sharad pawar to save his image in the public.
So what he does?
He sends messages through media that it was Ajit Pawar's personal decision to form rebel government and shows "solidarity" with Congress and Shiv Sena leaders by moving with them.
This is a classic case of eyewash politics.
Not only Sharad Pawar, Congress also has indulged in eyewash politics by approaching the Governor's office, in his absence today, to give the letter of forming tripartite alliance government.
If it had numbers, the alliance could have submitted the affidavit in the Supreme Court, but they didn't.
Now, what next?
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will fix date and time of the floor test. After that, the whole process will begin. First the house will appoint a Protem Speaker. Second, all legislators will be made to take oath. Third, a Speaker will be elected. Fourth, the agenda will be taken up - either the floor test.
There could be an uproar in the assembly on the issue of who has the power to issue whip to NCP MLAs? In all certainty, the letter endorsed by Supreme Court claiming that Ajit Pawar is the party's legislature leader.
Ajit Pawar will then issue the whip asking all NCP MLAs to mandatorily vote for the government, if some violate, they will be disqualified.
Therefore, the chances of BJP and NCP forming a government is more likely.
Then what will Sharad Pawar do?
If 36 MLAs who were with him in the hotel votes for in Ajit Pawar's favour, then Sharad Pawar will talk about his helplessness to Congress and Shiv Sena by saying he tried everything politically, but failed constitutionally.
After a while, he could push for MP Supriya Sule, his daughter, into the central ministry as a reward for forming Maharashtra government.
Suppose, if 36 MLAs votes for Ajit Pawar and other MLAs stay with Sharad Pawar, then there will be two NCP parties lead by Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar.
If you look at it from any angle, Sharad Pawar will be as good as a father to Supriya Sule and as good as uncle to Ajit Pawar ... Period.
Besides the great names, there is one and he is Lutyens media's favorite - Kanhaiya Kumar, a JNU alumnus. He was famously accused of flashing his penis at a woman who objected to his urinating in public. He was fined Rs 3000 after he was found guilty in a formal inquiry initiated by the university.
Rona Wilson. He is accused of planning a Rajiv Gandhi type assassination plot to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his road shows in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Shehla Rashid, a parasite, who makes a living by spreading fake news to sow seeds of hatred on religious and caste lines. She is charged with collecting lakhs of rupees for Kathua rape and not handing over the amount to the victim’s family.
Despite all this, these virulent rats are still hero worshiped by hypocritical journalists like Michael Angelos and Bakait Pandeys (Rajdeep Sardesais and Ravish Kumars), whose only agenda is to browbeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies.
Distasteful history
From being listed as one of the most prominent educational institutes to being one of the most controversial universities in India, Jawaharlal Nehru University has come a long way to oppose Modi government on almost all issues.
The journey, began in 2016 when university administration and students locked horns over holding an event against the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, though the administration denied permission for the event.
However, the students held a debate on February 9, 2016, during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, leading to several university students charged with sedition charges.
In an act of hooliganism, the students, in March 2019, confined Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar's wife inside his residence after they broke into the house to protest against his decision to ban protest in vicinity of administration block.
A few months later, the students launched a protest against JNU's decision disallowing posters or writing slogans for any protest, terming it as an attempt to stifle their right to expression. However, the university's intention was to stop defacement of its property.
Even as the heat over this controversy had not subsided, the students opposed the hiked fee structure for hostels and confined a female associate professor in a classroom. She was rescued by police after a harrowing 20 hours of confinement.
Thereafter, the students resorted to vandalism by desecrating Swami Vivekananda's statue by unidentified assailants and writing abusive words below it, directed towards right-wing ideology and BJP government.
Later, a media team belonging to IANS was assaulted by these goons on November 12. They also assaulted JNU's women security officers on November 14.
They also manhandled a Zee News reporter and made lewd remarks against her. Amidst chants of "Zee News murdabad" and "Hindi media murdabad", these 'uncles and aunties' manhandled the reporter. Similar was the treatment meted out to eight women reporters of Hindi news channel Sudharshan News.
The selective silence
The students also attempted to silence Republic Media Network by turning off its microphone during a press conference held by them at JNU and none of the lefty-liberal brigade and Lutyens media came forward to condemn these act of hooliganism.
The silence over these unruly behavior of the students even against women reporters exposes their political agenda, tacitly backed by the Congress and the left parties, besides so-called liberal intelligentsia.
They have completely ignored the outrageous conduct of the 'students' and not condemned vandalisation of Swami Vivekananda's statue which is scheduled for inauguration at the university.
Hypocrisy is thy name of these set of divisive journalists. Hundreds of journalists, in February 2016, had marched towards Supreme Court demanding action against lawyers, who allegedly had beaten up journalists and JNU students gathered to witness the presentation of JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar arrested on the charge of sedition.
The much-needed change
It is high time for them to re-invent themselves. They are unable to understand the reason for the voters dumping their style of journalism like putrid food, election after election.
They have failed to initiate a genuine campaign against the current government because of their infatuation towards rabid and repeated slogans of "RSS, Church attack, Intolerant India, Award Wapasi, Cow Slaughter, Lynching, MeToo and Domestic Slowdown, Rupee Depreciation, Deflating Consumer Sentiments, GDP Growth", which hardly evince interest in voters to defeat Modi.
They had underestimated the impact of toilets, cooking gas and electricity in villages, which had changed the aspirations of rural masses. They also failed to acknowledge the success of universal healthcare, crop insurance and Mudra loans, which made greater sense to farmers.
Realising and understanding the politics of Modi can be a good starting point for the Lutyens media.
But, the problem all along has been their bet on the wrong player and team — Congress, led by empty pots Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, who make most of the noise, with the full backing of another set of empty pots - the Lutyens media and the Left intelligentsia.
The Cellular Operators Association of India led by Bharati Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have resorted to threatening and blackmailing the Indian government, by raising a false alarm on unprecedented crisis in telecom sector after the recent Supreme Court judgement on definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue.
They are threatening and blackmailing the government by referring to possible job loss; quality of service loss and loss of investments in the sector.
Many media picked up unconfirmed reports about Vodafone shutting its operations in India if the government does not give some relaxation to the company on demands for mobile spectrum fees.
If the company wants to exit India, so be it? Because, in its absence too, there will be vibrant competition between PSUs and private players, including the new entrants.
Moreover, it has been been claiming financial stress since long, but raking in moolah without bothering to modernise the networks, as evident for TRAI data in its IUC CP.
According to a Reuters report, Vodafone Global CEO Nick Read raised questions against Indian government by saying, "Financially there has been a heavy burden through unsupportive regulation, excessive taxes and on top of that we got the negative Supreme Court decision."
Is there any merit in the claims made by Read and COAI?
In contrast, the government has been more favorable to the telcos than what is being made out to be by Read and others. It had reduced 15 per cent AGR fixed as license fee 13 per cent and lastly to 8 per cent in 2013, which resulted in a massive loss of more than Rs 3 lakh crore, under the revised policy effective from 1999.
The government and judiciary also are convinced that the companies were under-reporting revenues for long. In 2017, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, in its report tabled in Parliament, had claimed that six private telecom players had understated their revenues by over Rs 61,000 crore, causing a loss of Rs 7,697.62 crore to the exchequer.
In contrast, the telcos were unsupportive as they broke the promises made to the government under the contract and went on to make abnormal profits through cartelisation, which helped them to flourish by charging heavily on data and voice services, but Jio's entry compelled them to reduce tariffs, benefiting subscribers.
Also, they did not make provisions, which should have been done, as they were aware of the government and court's position as early as 2008 and 2011.
On raising a false alarm on unprecedented crisis in telecom, if the situation was as such, how on earth Airtel started and continued business in African countries despite initial "losses?"
The truth is - the sector is in the consolidation phase, and hence, short-term losses during this period cannot be taken as stress, when an investor looks for future opportunities, especially in an era of Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain technology and robotics, which promise to act as a multiplier in the economy.
Therefore, the talk of the stress is only to get maximum concessions and no company will exit for sure considering the bright future. And even when if the stress exits, it cannot be attributable to the policymaker as they are result of wrong business decisions.
Both Airtel and Vodafone have sufficient financial capacity to pay the government dues by monetising their existing assets and investments and by issuing fresh equity in their companies.
These service providers have stakes in many profitable ventures in the country and abroad and have made multi-million dollars of profits in the countries post investing the proceeds from telecom business, including the regulatory levies withheld for decades.
The telecom industry is staring at Rs 92,641-crore payout following the verdict. The court last week had given verdict in favor of the government, who sought inclusion of revenue from non-telecommunication businesses in calculating the AGR of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer.
Bharti Airtel faces a liability of around Rs 42,000 crore after including licence fees and spectrum usage charges, Vodafone-Idea about Rs 40,000 crore and Jio around Rs 14 crore.
What is required on part of the promoters and top management of the companies is to sincerely pay up AGR as agreed in the licence conditions and restore their credibility.
And, three months time given by the court to share the revenue is lenient compared to stringent provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016. Period.
The Supreme Court yesterday wound up the fake Rafale scam by dismissing all review pleas seeking investigation into the defence deal.
The court, in its verdict, rejected the pleas filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan and former Union Ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, who argued that Narendra Modi Government had suppressed information from the court regarding the deal to procure 36 Rafale jets.
In the aftermath of this verdict, it is expected that the malicious attempt to malign the character and personal integrity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi by media and a particular faction of the political establishment, ebbs down as soon as possible.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi and libtards fabricated lies and passed on to the mainstream media who were eager to provide them a platform to sway the minds of the voters in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The media led by 'The Hindu' Editor N Ram effectively campaigned against Modi government.
In this whole campaign, it will not be an exaggeration to claim that Ram benefited the most in terms of advertisements placed by rival companies of Rafale in 'The Hindu', which is owned by him. Reasons for Rahul Gandhi to peddle Rafale lies
Reason 1: What bothers Congress and Rahul Gandhi most is Modi's clean image. He has been in politics for the last three decades, but not a single corruption charge has been leveled against him. They tried hard to tarnish his image with 2002 Gujarat riots, but failed.
They also used many adjectives, including Sonia Gandhi and Mani Shankar Aiyar's 'Maut ka Saudagar' and 'Chaiwala', during election campaigns in the past. In the last election, they used 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' and 'Neech' slogans to change people's perception that Modi is an an honest politician.
Also, the Congress did not have a single genuine issue to defeat Modi, considering the comparative performance of both NDA and UPA governments. NDA's performance was far better than a decade's rule of UPA, which was remote-controlled by Sonia Gandhi.
So, they tried to do what they do best - to lie and spread it with the help of their well-oiled lobbies at every place. They believe that a lie told 1,000 times would be converted into the universal truth. Hence, they kicked up a campaign on Rafale deal against Modi.
It is very apt to mention here that Ram and Co, in a bid to help Congress and Rahul gandhi in the runup to 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had intentionally cropped an internal note of the Ministry of Defense to exclude the then Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar’s response and present a distorted view of the events that transpired.
Soon, ANI and Republic TV, exposed Ram's fallen journalistic ethics by publishing the full page of the note, which showed that he had cropped the document to omit Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's reply to it.
Parrikar's reply made it clear that both PMO and French President offices were monitoring the government to government deal, and the comments of the secretary are an overreaction.
Moreover, the negotiations referred to in Defence Secretary G Mohan Kumar's dissent order in the note had nothing to with pricing at all, thus dislodging the lie of Rahul Gandhi's claims of Modi stealing Rs 30,000 crores based on Ram's distorted presentation of events.
Also, it is important to note that the dissenting Deputy Secretary (Air-II) was neither a part of Defence Acquisition Council nor a part of Indian Negotiating Team for the defence deal.
Therefore, the Supreme Court observed that the whole Rafale deal process was struck between the French and Indian government according to law and hence there should not be any further probe into the issue.
More than anything else, Supreme Court gave relief to Rahul Gandhi while simultaneously reprimanding him strongly in the contempt case filed by BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi against him for attributing his 'Chowkidar Chor Hai' political slogan to the apex court, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Pronouncing the judgement, Justice SC Kaul said that it was unfortunate that the contemnor (Rahul Gandhi) had made such remarks and that he - holding such an important position - should have been more careful.
Justice Kaul observed that no court should be dragged into any political discourse.
Following this, citing the affidavit filed by Rahul Gandhi in which he had apologised, the three-judge bench in a concurring judgment said that it would not like to continue with the contempt proceedings further.
Not only Rahul Gandhi has been accused of running a fake "Chowkidar Chor Hai" campaign to win elections, but also accused of working as a "lobbyist" for foreign firms.
Earlier, the Congress scion had accused Modi of acting as a "middleman" of Anil Ambani in the Rafale jet deal, as he cited an Airbus internal email to claim the businessman was aware of the MoU before India and France signed it.
It is suspected that the email was provided by Airbus, which was the only competitor to Rafale in a bid to win the deal.
In a scathing rebuttal, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sought explanation from Rahul Gandhi, asking him from did he get the internal email of Airbus and alleged that he is working as a lobbyist for foreign firms, including Airbus.
Airbus, an European aircraft manufacturer, is already under a needle of suspicion in deals finalised during the previous Congress-led government. The firm is also linked to a corporate lobbyist, Deepak Talwar who was deported from the UAE and is being probed on money laundering charges.
In a separate Augusta Westand chopper case, investigations revealed that jailed Christian Michel had access to internal discussions of the UPA Cabinet and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meetings and to confidential conversation between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Reason 2: Rafale deal also "troubled" Congress because Modi government had cancelled the offset bid of notorious arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, a close aide of Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra.
Bhandari who ran Offsets India Solutions, at one point of time, had applied considerable pressure to get a slice of work in the Rafale deal. However, the French firm - Dassault Aviation decide against working with OIS after a few initial rounds of talks.
In May 2016, Bhandari's offices in New Delhi were raided by Enforcement Directorate, as they were probing into the arms dealers indulgence in wrongful defence deals. Thereafter, he fled to London ever since.
Bhandari has been booked under the Official Secrets Act after confidential defence ministry documents were found in his offices. Investigators also are looking into charges of his attempts to influence defence deals with European companies in India.
What the verdict proves?
The closure of Rafale case proves that the watchdogs of the government themselves have been corrupted beyond limits, that they shamelessly share the same plank with people belonging to one particular section of the political establishment, having common interests that are opposed to the ideals and values of Sangh Parivar.
So, with no other options left with the political establishment led by Rahul Gandhi who was ably supported by the media, staged a failed coup using their resources to create a false narrative to influence voters by calling Modi, a thief and a dishonest politician.
