'Will apologise': Rahul Gandhi to file fresh affadavit over 'Chowkidar chor hai' misquote after being pulled up by Supreme Court

The dictionary meaning of regret is same as apology: That was Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s closing argument in the contempt case against Rahul Gandhi — for wrongly attributing is C_howkidaar chor hai_ jibe to the Supreme Court — which allowed him the opportunity, courtesy of the bench, to file a rectified affidavit by 6 May. That and the fact that Singhvi flat out admitted that Rahul wrongly attributed the remarks to the apex court.

" I have made three errors, I accept. I wrongly attributed the statements to My Lords. I apologise. It was never my intention to suggest that the Supreme Court endorsed, adopted or supported the political slogan ‘Chowkidar chor hai,’" Singhvi told the court on behalf of Rahul, during the 30-minute proceedings which took place under intense media glare.

The Supreme Court allowed Rahul to file a new affidavit on Monday after Singhvi assured the bench Rahul would apologise and that the rectified affidavit would contain the word apology. The court however, clarified that this order cannot be understood to be an acceptance or acknowledgement of the affidavits that have been filed already.

The Congress chief had earlier filed two separate affidavits after the court took a favourable view of BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi’s plea that the incorrect attribution amounted to contempt of court. However, both these documents were worded to say that Rahul had made those comments in the heat of the campaign and ‘ regretted’ the fact that he attributed it to the court.’

The court was furious. “You are compelling us to say things now… We refrained from saying anything further on the last date but this is your second affidavit. We never said it.. You attributed the foment to us and now you are trying to justify (sic)?” CJI Ranjan Gogoi said.  “We have great difficulty in understanding what you want to say in the affidavit,” said the bench, also comprising justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph.

Singhvi replied by saying Rahul has already expressed “complete regret” in this regard. However, the court shot down that argument and asked: “Is this how you express regret? Show us where is that complete regret? He claims to be a literate person. But in his affidavit he says, I didn’t read or analyse the order when I made this comment. Three hours later, he says it again at a different rally. What kind of regret is he talking about?”

The bench also objected to the contradictions within the same affidavit.  Though Rahul, through his counsel, admitted he made a mistake by wrongly attributing the remark to the apex court, the Supreme Court observed that in the affidavit filed, at one point the Congress admitted the mistake and at another point denied making the remarks.

“You have contradicted yourself in the affidavit. At one place, you admit your statement but on the other, you deny saying it. If you start arguing on the basis of this affidavit, we won’t give you another opportunity to file a better affidavit…” It was then that Singhvi, on behalf of Rahul, apologised. “I say sorry for attributing the c_howkidar_ comment to the Supreme Court,” Singhvi said.

The court, unsatisfied with a verbal apology, asked: “Where have you said all this in your affidavit?” To this Singhvi replied that he had checked, in English language dictionary the word regret and apology are synonymous. However, the court asked Singhvi to simply accept that they had committed a mistake. “Why don’t you just accept your mistake, everybody does it.” The top court told Singhvi that it was not concerned with the political stand narrated in the affidavit. “We aren’t concerned with your political stand. We want you to apologise for your attribution to us.”

The court posted the matter for next hearing on 6 May, the sane day that Rahul’s constituency Amethi goes to the polls.

With inputs from  @utkarsh_aanand ,  @barandbench